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N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-278.14A

Evidence that communications are "to support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates."

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case North Carolina Right To Life, Inc. v. Leake (2008)

Most recently applied in Center for Individual Freedom, Inc. v. Tennant (July 2011)

1999-453, s. 3(a); 2008-150, s. 6(b); 2015-258, s. 3(k); 2017-6, s. 3; 2018-146, s. 3.1(a), (b); 2025-25, s. 29(3).

How often courts cite this section

20032010201110
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) The following shall be means of proving that an individual or other entity acted "to support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates": presenting evidence of financial sponsorship of communications to the general public that use phrases such as "vote for", "reelect", "support", "cast your ballot for", "(name of candidate) for (name of office)", "(name of candidate) in (year)", "vote against", "defeat", "reject", "vote pro-(policy position)" or "vote anti-(policy position)" accompanied by a list of candidates clearly labeled "pro-(policy position)" or "anti-(policy position)", or communications of campaign words or slogans, such as posters, bumper stickers, advertisements, etc., which say "(name of candidate)'s the One", "(name of candidate) '98", "(name of candidate)!", or the names of two candidates joined by a hyphen or slash.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, a communication shall not be subject to regulation as a contribution or expenditure under this Article if it:

(1) Appears in a news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, or magazine, unless those facilities are owned or controlled by any political party, affiliated party committee, or political committee;

(2) Is distributed by a corporation solely to its stockholders and employees; or

(3) Is distributed by any organization, association, or labor union solely to its members or to subscribers or recipients of its regular publications, or is made available to individuals in response to their request, including through the internet.

Official source: North Carolina General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain North Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.