Senate committee substitute replaces the contents of the 1st edition in its entirety with the following. Makes conforming changes to the act's titles.

Section 1

Amends GS 163-182.5 (concerning canvassing votes) so that prior to 5:00 pm on the third business day before the canvass meeting, the county board of elections, must, in a uniform manner, review official records (defined) of the names of residents of the State who are deceased and who are serving felony sentences and compare those records to the records of voters who cast a ballot during early voting or cast an absentee ballot in the county. The county director of elections, or his or her designee must challenge the ballot, whether cast during early voting or by absentee ballot, of any voter identified through these records who was not eligible on the day of the election by reason of death or felony conviction.

Section 2

Adds generative artificial intelligence (AI) to definitions provision GS 163-278.38Z (governing disclosure requirement for media adverts). Increases the basic disclosure requirements for all political advertisements to include in any ad created  in whole or in part with the use of generative AI if the generated content appears to depict a real person performing  an action that did not actually occur, was created to injure candidate or deceive regarding a ballot issue, or provides false or misleading information to a voter, that the sponsor discloses the use of generative AI. The advertisement must bear the legend or include the statement: "The content in this advertisement has been edited or created in whole or in part with the use of generative AI." In television advertisements, this disclosure must be made by visual legend. Includes failure to include any required statement or bear a required legend as one of the violations of the statute that constitutes a Class 1 misdemeanor.  Effective July 1, 2024, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.

Section 3

Requires the State Board of Elections (Board) to require that county board of election use signature verification software to check the signatures of voters noted on executed absentee ballots before they are accepted by county boards under GS 163-231 (concerning transmission of voted absentee ballots to the county board of elections). Effective July 1, 2025, and applies to elections held on or after that date.

Section 4

Amends Section 48 of SL 2023-140 to extend the pilot program on signature verification on executed mail-in absentee ballots to the 2024 general election. Directs that for the 2024 primary, the selected county boards of elections must conduct the signature matching for all  mail-in absentee ballots that  were counted by the county board during that primary. For the 2024 general election, the selected county boards of elections must conduct the signature matching for all mail-in absentee ballots as the applications are approved by the county board. Extends the Board’s reporting deadline from May 1, 2024 to January 29, 2025. Makes conforming changes.

Section 5

Adds new GS 153A-65 (counties) and GS 160A-112 (cities), concerning limits on each local government entity’s authority to modify the structure of its governing board to specify that it may only exercise such authority if the alteration is effective the election subsequent to the return of the next federal decennial census after the effective date of the local act. Amends GS 153A-3 (effect of Chapter on local acts) to specify that the statute does not apply to any local act altering any of the optional structures set forth in GS 153A-58 (optional structures of county government). Amends GS 160A-3 (general laws supplementary to charters) so that the statute is not applicable to any local act altering any of the optional structures set forth in GS 160A-101(4)-(8) (concerning terms, number of members, mode of election, elections, and selection of mayor of the town council). Applies to local acts enacted on or after the date the act becomes law.