SB 392 — Safeguard Fair Elections.

FILED SENATE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA MarSESSION 24, 2025 S.B.S 1 SENATE BILL 392 Short Title:

392 SESSION 2025 PRINCIPAL CLERK S D SENATE BILL DRS35160-LUae-29 Short Title:

Rules and Operations of the Senate March 25, 2025 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT TO PROVIDE INCREASED PROTECTIONS FOR VOTERS AND ELECTIONS OFFICIALS AGAINST VARIOUS FORMS OF INTERFERENCE WITH AN ELECTION AND TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES.

*DRS35160-LUae-29**S392-v-1* General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 (3) Engages in mass, indiscriminate, and groundless challenging of voters solely for the purpose of preventing voters from voting or to delay the process of voting or the lawful and orderly administration of an election.

(1) Enclose the employees' pay in pay envelopes upon which or in which there is written or printed the name of anyanycandidate candidate or any political mottoes, devices, or arguments containing threats, express or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of the employees.

For purposes of this section, a person shall be found to have intimidated or coerced another person if the person knew or reasonablyreasonablyshould should have known that his or her actions would produce that effect.

(a) In addition to any other fine or penalty imposed by this Article, the court may order any person convicted of violating this Article to pay a restitution fine, the amount of which shall bedetermined bybythe the courtand becommensurate with theseriousness oftheoffense.

… Page 2 DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 (e) In addition to the penalties described under this Article, the State Board and the district attorneys are authorized to investigate, prosecute, and seek increased penalties for a person that intimidates, threatens, or coerces an election worker, as defined in G.S.

DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition Page 3 General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 (2) Publicofficial.

– Anindividual legallyauthorizedorpermittedlegallyauthorizedorpermittedto to executelaws or make decisions on behalf of any government, including any branch, subdivision, or agency of the State or any county, city, district, or other local government.

Page 4 DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 (4) Preserves the integrity of election systems and voting equipment.

For purposes of this section, a "risk-limiting"risk-limitingaudit"is audit"isahand-to-eye ahand-to-eyerecountrecount ofarandomlyselectedsampleofballotsofarandomlyselected sampleofballots in acontest that provides strong statistical evidence that the machine-counted results are correct and is based on a"risk-limit";

(a) Forpurposes ofthis section,section,"observer"is "observer" is defined as an individualindividualappointedpursuant appointed pursuant to this section to observe the voting process at a voting place.

Individuals appointedto serveat aparticular votingvotingplaceorcountywideshall placeorcountywideshall besubmitted to the director of the county board of elections for that county.

Before each voting place opens for voting, the county board of elections shall provide a copy of the list of appointed observers for each voting DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition Page 5 General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 place to the chief judge for that respective voting place, including any countywide or statewide observers.

(2) ListeningListeningto to conversations betweena voter and election official thattake place in the voting place, provided the conversation is related to election administration.

(j) A chief judge maymayremove remove an observer who engages in prohibited behavior under this section.

A chief judge maymayalso also remove an observer for good cause, which shall include evidence that the observer could impact the conduct of the election.

The director of the Page 6 DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 county board of elections must immediatelyimmediatelynotify notify the appointing authority so that a replacement observer can be appointed.

DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition Page 7 General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 (b) The State Board shall develop a process and establish criteria for precinct officials requesting nondisclosure of their personally identifiable information pursuant to this section.

–TheNotwithstandingsubsection (j) of this section, the decision of the General AssemblyAssemblyin indeterminingthe determining the contest of the election pursuant to this section may not be reviewed by the General Court of Justice.

If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this act that can be given effect Page 8 DRS35160-LUae-29Senate Bill 392-First Edition General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 without the invalid provisions or application and, to this end, the provisions of this act are severable.

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