Senate committee substitute to the 1st edition makes the following changes.

Makes the following changes to proposed GS 166A-19.70A. Makes a technical change to the lead-in language. Retitles the statute as Facilitate critical infrastructure disaster relief. Amends the statute's purpose to modify the legislative finding by listing the state tax laws and regulatory requirements that nonresident businesses and nonresident employees are exempt from when providing temporary disaster-related work in the state during a disaster response period at the request of a critical infrastructure company. Exemptions include corporate and individual income tax, franchise tax, unemployment tax, workers' compensation, and certificates of authority from the Secretary of State (previously set forth separate subsections for nonresident businesses and employees, and included exemptions from S-corporation income tax and information return requirements). Modifies and adds to the definitions provided. Amends disaster response period, now defined to expire on the earlier of 60 days following the expiration of the disaster declaration or 180 days following the disaster declaration's issuance (previously, extended 60 days following the declaration's expiration only). Replaces the term out-of-state business with the term nonresident business, defining the term to mean an entity that has not been required to file an income or franchise tax return with the State for three years prior to the disaster response period, other than those arising from the performance of disaster-related work during a tax year prior to the statute's enactment, that is a nonresident entity and/or a nonresident individual who owns an unincorporated business as a sole proprietor. Similarly, replaces the term out-of-state employee with nonresident employee. Adds the terms corporation, employee, nonresident entity, and nonresident individual. Modifies the terms registered public communications provider and registered public utility to refer to corporations doing business in the state rather than a person registered to conduct business in the state. Further amends registered public utility to include corporations subject to the control of the NC Rural Electrification Authority. Now requires a critical infrastructure company to provide notification to the Department of Revenue (Department) within 90 days of the expiration of the disaster response period (previously required notification of the State Emergency Response Team within 30 days of the business's entry into the state). Adds a requirement for a nonresident business to provide notification to the Department within 90 days of the date the nonresident business concludes its disaster-related work. Requires the notifications to be in the form and manner required by the Department Secretary, and details each notification's required content. Establishes that failure to submit a timely notification forfeits the relief provided by the statute for the nonresident business. Makes clarifications to the statute's limitations, specifying that the statute only provides exemptions for nonresident businesses and nonresident employees who would not be subject to state tax and regulatory requirements but for their performance of disaster-related work and only during a disaster response period.

Amends the following statutes to implement the intended exceptions for nonresident businesses and nonresident employees performing requested disaster related work: GS 57D-1-24, GS 96-1, GS 105-114, GS 105-130.1, GS 105-130.5, GS 105-131.7, GS 105-154, GS 105-153.2, GS 105-153.8, GS 105-163.1, GS 105-163.3, and GS 105-163.7. Eliminates the proposed conforming changes to GS 96-9.2, GS 97-13, GS 105-125, GS 105-130.11, GS 105-153.4, and GS 105-163.2.

Deletes proposed GS 55-1-51, which provided exemptions from certificate of authority requirements for certain disaster relief activities (critical infrastructure work and motor fuel transport) and instead enacts GS 55-15-01(e), providing for substantively identical exemptions. 

Makes conforming modifications to the proposed changes to GS 105-130.5, now adding to the required additions to federal taxable income in determining state net income payments made to an affiliate or subsidiary not subject to tax in accordance with the policy in new GS 166A-19.70A, to the extent the payments are deducted in determining federal taxable income.

Adds to GS 105-163.3, establishing that businesses are exempt from state withholding requirements for wages paid to nonresident employees or compensation paid to a nonresident ITIN contractor when derived from disaster-related work performed during a disaster response period at the request of a critical infrastructure company. 

Further amends GS 105-131.7, GS 105-154, and GS 105-163.7 to require nonresident entities and employers exempt under the policy in new GS 166A-19.70A to provide information to their shareholders, partners, and employees, as applicable, even though they are not required to file a return with the Department, so that the shareholders, partners, and employees may properly file a state income tax return. 

Maintains proposed GS 105-449.69A, allowing the issuance of a temporary license to import, export, distribute, or transport motor fuel in the state in response to a disaster declaration. Makes a technical change.

Changes the effective date of the act, now applicable to disaster declarations on or after the date the act becomes law (was, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019). 

Senate amendments to the 2nd edition make the following changes.

Amendment #1 provides the following.

Further amends GS 163A-1313 to require county boards of elections to create a list of applications made for absentee ballots received by the county board. Requires county boards to update the list daily from the date the county board begins to mail application and ballots through the date of canvass. Deems the list public record. Makes technical changes. 

Maintains the requirement set forth in GS 163A-1308 for a qualified voter eligible to vote by absentee ballot, or that voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian to complete a request form for an absentee ballot application and absentee ballots, with receipt by the county board required no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Tuesday before the election (previously, required a written, signed request rather than a completed request form). Maintains current law set forth in GS 163A-1309, establishing that a completed written request form for absentee ballots is only valid on a form created by the State Board of Elections (State Board) and signed by the requesting voter or the voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian. Now restricts availability of the form to the State Board's offices and county board of elections offices (no longer allowing the State Board to make the form available online or allowing county boards to reproduce the form). Maintains current law which allows for a voter to request a State Board-created form to request absentee ballots either in person or by writing to the county board. Adds to the information the request form must contain: (1) a clear indicator of the calendar year in which the election(s) generating the request are to be held; (2) the name of any individual or group that assisted with the voter obtaining or completing the written request form; and (3) a unique identifier, applicable only to the voter completing that written request form. Restricts delivery of the completed request form to the county board by the voter or that voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian only (similar to the restrictions previously provided for completed requests), and makes a request not delivered by those authorized persons invalid. Modifies the minimum criteria for the State Board's implementing rules concerning forms of identification that must be included with completed written requests for absentee ballots to include (1) acceptable photocopies of forms of readable identification as described by state law (was, acceptable forms of readable identification substantially similar to those required under state law) and (2) a process for a voter without acceptable photocopies of forms of readable identification to complete an alternative affidavit that includes inability to attach a physical copy of the voter's ID with the written request as a reasonable impediment to compliance with the requirement (was, including lack of access to a method to attach an electronic or physical copy; maintains elimination of option to return required ID forms with the absentee ballot container return envelope). Makes further changes to eliminate reference to the proposed replacement of the form with written requests. Makes clarifying changes by adding descriptors to the statute's subsections. 

Makes new GS 163A-1309(a)(9), which requires the State Board's absentee ballot request form to include a unique identifier for voters, effective January 1, 2019, and applicable to requests for absentee ballots on or after that date.

Eliminates the requirement for the State Board to prepare and disseminate a voter instruction sheet regarding the process to request a mail-in absentee ballot by December 1, 2019. Instead, requires the State Board to report to the specified NCGA committee and the legislature by May 1, 2020, as to its plans to implement the unique identifier requirement on request forms, set forth in GS 163A-1309(a)(9), as amended, and any necessary statutory changes.

Amendment #2 amends GS 163A-1307, concerning the requirements for container-return envelopes for absentee ballots, to require the State Board to prohibit the display of the voter's party affiliation on the outside of the container-return envelope. 

Amendment #3 amends the proposed changes to GS 163A-1317, increasing from a Class 2 misdemeanor to a Class 1 misdemeanor the new offenses of selling or attempting to sell completed written requests for absentee ballots, and compensating or accepting compensation based on the number of returned written requests for absentee ballots. Creates another new offense, making it a Class G felony to steal, release, or possess the official register of absentee requests for mail-in absentee ballots prior to the opening of the voting place for a purpose other than the conduct of business at the county board of elections.

Amendment #4 eliminates the proposed changes to GS 163A-1303 concerning uniform hours at one-stop sites, and instead amends the statute to change the weekday hours for one-stop sites from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., to 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.