NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1973 SESSION

CHAPTER 32

SENATE BILL 117

AN ACT TO REVISE THE LAW REGARDING ABC ELECTIONS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 18A-51 is rewritten to read as follows:

"G.S. 18A-51.  County elections as to alcoholic beverage control stores. — No county alcoholic beverage control store shall be established, maintained or operated in any county of this State until and unless there has been held in the county an election as provided herein, and the election shall be held under the same general laws, rules and regulations applicable to elections for county officers, insofar as practicable, provided that no absentee ballots or markers shall be permitted. At this election there shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the county the question of setting up and operating in the county an alcoholic beverage control store, or stores, as herein provided. Those favoring the setting up and operation of alcoholic beverage control stores in the county shall mark in the voting square to the left of the words 'for county alcoholic beverage control stores' printed on the ballot, and those opposed to setting up and operating alcoholic beverage control stores in the county shall mark in the voting square to the left of the words 'against county alcoholic beverage control stores,' printed on the same ballot. If a majority of the votes cast in such election shall be for county alcoholic beverage control stores, then an alcoholic beverage control store, or alcoholic beverage control stores, may be set up and operated in the county as herein provided. If a majority of the votes cast at the election are against county alcoholic beverage control stores, then no alcoholic beverage control store shall be set up or operated in the county under the provisions of this Chapter.

The election shall be called in the county by the board of elections of the county only upon the written request of the board of county commissioners therein, or upon a petition to the board of elections signed by a number of voters of the county equal to at least twenty percent (20%) of the number of registered voters of the county according to the registration figures as certified by the board of elections on the date the petition is presented to the county board of elections. In calling the special election, the county board of elections shall give at least 30 days' public notice of the election before the closing of the registration books for said election, and the registration books shall close at the same time as for a regular election. A new registration of voters for such special alcoholic beverage control election is not required, and all qualified electors who are properly registered prior to the registration for the special election, as well as those electors who register for the special alcoholic beverage control election, shall be entitled to vote in the election.

Unless otherwise specified in this section, the procedural requirements relating to the petition shall be as provided in G.S. 18A-52(b), (c), (d), and (e), except the question shall be 'FOR' and 'AGAINST' county alcoholic beverage control stores.

If any county, while operating any alcoholic beverage control store under the provisions of Chapters 418 or 493 of the Public Laws of 1935, or under the terms of this Chapter hereafter under the provisions of this Article holds an election and if at this election a majority of the votes are cast 'against county alcoholic beverage control stores,' then the alcoholic beverage control board in such county shall, within three months from the canvassing of the vote and the declaration of the result thereof, close the stores and shall thereafter cease to operate them. During this period, the county control board shall dispose of all alcoholic beverages on hand, all fixtures, and all other property in the hands and under the control of the county control board and shall convert the same into money and shall, after making a true and faithful accounting, turn all money in its hands over to the general funds of the county.

No election under this section shall be held on the day of any biennial election for county officers, or within 45 days of such an election. The date of any elections held under this section shall be fixed by the board of elections of the county wherein the election is held.

No other election shall be called and held in any of the counties in the State under the provisions of this section within three years from the holding of the last election under this section. In any county in which an election was held either under the provisions of Chapters 418 and 493 of the Public Laws of 1935, an election may be called under the provisions of this section, provided that no such election shall be called within three years of the holding of the last election.

Nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to require counties in which alcoholic beverage control stores have been established under Chapters 418 or 493 of the Public Laws of 1935 to have any further election in order to enable them to establish alcoholic beverage control stores. Counties in which alcoholic beverage control stores are now being operated under Chapters 418 or 493 of the Public Laws of 1935 shall from February 22, 1937, be operated under the terms of this Chapter."

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 26th day of February, 1973.