HB 294 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Jackson County Board of Education Election Partisan.

HB 294 changes Jackson County's school board elections from nonpartisan to partisan, requiring candidates to run under political party labels instead of as nonpartisan candidates. This affects all future Jackson County school board elections, directly impacting voters and candidates in the county's five single-member districts. The bill modifies election rules to align with standard partisan voting procedures for county offices, replacing the current nonpartisan plurality method. It becomes effective for the 2025 school board elections.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2025

House Passage

Mar 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 5, 2025 Last action Mar 27, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Edition 1 → Edition 2 · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill was amended to simplify its text and clarify its purpose by removing references to technical changes and making the partisan election requirement the sole focus. The amendment also reorganized the sections to better explain eligibility requirements and adjusted the effective date for when the new election rules take effect.

Scope change

The bill's scope narrowed from providing partisan elections plus technical changes to focusing primarily on establishing partisan elections for the Jackson County Board of Education.

REQUIREMENT

Added new eligibility requirement stating that candidates must be qualified voters and residents of the specific residency district they seek to represent.

Added new Section 2 clarifying that the act does not affect terms of members elected in 2024 and specifies how vacancies from 2024 elections should be filled by appointment.

TIMELINE

Changed the effective date from December 1, 2025 to the first Monday in December 2026, with elections in 2026 and thereafter conducted accordingly.

TECHNICAL

Removed references to making other technical changes and deleted the original Section 2(b) regarding G.S. 115C-37.1(d) which was moved to a new Section 3.

DEFINITION

Changed the title from 'Jackson Co Bd of Ed Election Partisan' to 'Jackson County Board of Education' and updated the bill title to focus solely on partisan election provisions.

Floor votes · House Mar 26, 2025

How they voted

67–46

Passed · 8 other

Total votes 121

Mar 26, 2025

D Democratic46

43 Nay 3

93% Nay

I Independent2

2 Nay

100% Nay

R Republican73

67 Yea 1 Nay 5

91% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 27, 2025

Committee

Ref To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate

upper

Mar 26, 2025

Lower · Passed

Passed 3rd Reading

lower

Mar 24, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav

lower

Mar 18, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Mar 18, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Substitute

lower

Mar 6, 2025

Committee

Ref to the Com on Election Law, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

0 primary · 1 co-sponsor