North Carolina § 163-258 - 17. Prohibition of nonessential requirements.

§ 163-258. 17. Prohibition of nonessential requirements.

If a voter's mistake or omission in the completion of a document under this Article does not prevent determining whether a covered voter is eligible to vote, the mistake or omission does not invalidate the document. Failure to satisfy a nonessential requirement, such as using paper or envelopes of a specified size or weight, does not invalidate a document submitted under this Article. In any write-in ballot authorized by this Article or in any vote for a write-in candidate on a regular ballot, if the intention of the voter is discernable under this State's uniform definition of what constitutes a vote, as required by the Help America Vote Act, 42 U.S.C. § 15481(a)(6), an abbreviation, misspelling, or other minor variation in the form of the name of a candidate or a political party shall be accepted as a valid vote. An authentication, other than the declaration specified in G.S. 163-258.13 or the declaration on the federal postcard application and federal write-in absentee ballot, is not required for execution of a document under this Article. The declaration and any information in the declaration may be compared against information on file to ascertain the validity of the document. History (2011-182, s. 1; 2017-6, s. 3; 2018-146, s. 3.1(a), (b).) Editor's Note. - This section was recodified as now former G.S. 163A-1351 by Session Laws 2017-6, s. 3. Former G.S. 163A-1351 was then re-recodified as this section by Session Laws 2018-146, s. 3.1(a), effective January 31, 2019. The historical citation from the former section has been added to this section as re-recodified. 42 U.S.C. § 15481, referred to in subsection (a), was transferred to 52 U.S.C. § 21081, by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel as part of an editorial reclassification of the United States Code. Session Laws 2018-146, s. 3.1(b), effective January 31, 2019, repealed Session Laws 2017-6, s. 3, which had recodified this section.