Registering to vote at one-stop locations? Here’s what you’ll need
Published 12:00 am Friday, April 27, 2018
- Salisbury Post File photo - a voter walks into the Rowan County Board of Elections during early voting in 2018.
SALISBURY — Any resident who has not yet registered to vote in Rowan County may do so at any one-stop voting location.
These sites are the county Board of Elections Office in Salisbury, the Rockwell American Legion Building and the South Branch of the Rowan Public Library in China Grove.
Once registered, new voters can immediately vote at that same one-stop site. The process is known as same-day registration.
According to the State Board of Elections website, same-day registrants must “attest to their eligibility and provide proof of residence.”
This is different from voting by preregistered voters, who are not required to provide identification.
Voter eligibility in North Carolina includes the following criteria:
• You must be a U.S. citizen.
• You must be at least 18 years old or you will be 18 years old by the date of the next general election and you are voting in a primary.
• You must have lived in North Carolina and in the precinct in which you are voting for at least 30 days before the election.
• You must not be currently serving a felony sentence. If previously convicted of a felony, you must have fully completed your sentence, including probation and parole. No special document is required.
Attesting your eligibility to vote is as simple as signing a completed voter registration form. Knowingly attesting to false information is a felony.
As proof of residency, voters must provide any one of the following bearing their current name and address:
• A North Carolina driver license.
• Other photo identification issued by a government agency, as long as the card bears the voter’s current name and current address.
• A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document showing the voter’s name and address.
• A current college or university photo identification card paired with proof of living on campus.
For college students:
According to state law, on-campus college students may declare their dormitory as their residence “so long as a student intends to make the student’s home in the community where the student is physically present for the purpose of attending school.”
The student must have no intent to return to his former home after graduation but doesn’t need to intend to stay in the college community beyond graduation.
A Board of Elections memo says that same-day student registrants can verify their residency by presenting any document “originating with the educational institution and containing their name and on-campus housing address or facility name.”
Acceptable documents may be those issued by either public or private education institutions and include correspondence, an invoice, transcript, or a printout or screen shot from an official registration or housing portal showing the student’s name and on-campus housing address.
The State Board of Elections also allows education institutions to voluntarily provide elections officials with a list of all students who live in a particular campus housing facility. These lists may be referenced in conjunction with a valid student photo identification card presented by the registrant.
Such lists may not be used if they do not differentiate between residents at different campus housing facilities.