AN ACT to appropriate funds to require the state board of community colleges to establish the student voter identification grant program and to encourage community colleges to apply for grants under the program.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Community Colleges System Office the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2024‑2025 fiscal year for the State Board of Community Colleges to establish the Student Voter Identification Grant Program (Program) to provide grants to community colleges of up to twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) per community college to upgrade necessary equipment and facilities to produce student identification cards that can be used to vote in person in accordance with G.S. 163‑166.16. The State Board shall develop a process for receiving applications from community colleges and award grants no later than August 15, 2024, to any community college that submits a reasonable and timely plan for the expenditure of funds consistent with the purposes of the Program. No community college shall receive more than one grant under the Program. No later than February 15, 2025, the System Office shall report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on the identity of the community colleges receiving grants under the Program and the purchases made with the funds awarded.

SECTION 1.(b)  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the State Board of Elections shall review and approve the application of any community college receiving funds under the Student Voter Identification Grant Program established in subsection (a) of this section that is submitted to the State Board by September 1, 2024, to have its student identification cards approved for use as photo identification cards, if the application complies with other requirements for such an application established by the State Board.

SECTION 2.  It is the intent of the General Assembly (i) to encourage all community colleges in the State that do not have student identification cards that can be used to vote in person in accordance with G.S. 163‑166.16 to apply to receive grants under the Student Voter Identification Grant Program established pursuant to Section 1 of this act and (ii) that the Program remove the existing financial barriers of community colleges to providing students with valid photo identification for voting.

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2024.