I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 9779 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to confirm the requirement 

that States allow access to designated congressional election observers 

to observe the election administration procedures in congressional elections. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 

Mr. CAREY (for himself, Mr. STEIL, and Mr. MORELLE) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 

A BILL 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to confirm 

the requirement that States allow access to designated 

congressional election observers to observe the election 

administration procedures in congressional elections. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Confirmation Of Con5 gressional Observer Access Act of 2024’’ or the ‘‘COCOA 

6 Act of 2024’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OBSERV2 ERS. 

3 (a) ACCESS REQUIRED.—Title III of the Help Amer4 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amend5 ed— 

6 (1) by redesignating section 304 and 305 as 

7 sections 305 and 306; and 

8 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 

9 new section: 

10 ‘‘SEC. 304. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB11 SERVERS. 

12 ‘‘(a) FINDING OF CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY.— 

13 Congress finds that, regardless of legislative action, it has 

14 the authority to send congressional election observers to 

15 observe polling locations, any location where processing, 

16 scanning, tabulating, canvassing, recounting, auditing, or 

17 certifying voting results is occurring, or any other part 

18 of the process associated with elections for Federal office 

19 under the authorities granted under article 1, section 5, 

20 clause 1 and article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitu21 tion of the United States. Procedures described herein do 

22 not establish any new authorities or procedures with re23 spect to Congress’ constitutional authority to observe con24 gressional elections but are provided simply to permit a 

25 convenient statutory reference for existing congressional 

26 authority and activity. 


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1 ‘‘(b) REQUIRING STATES TO PROVIDE ACCESS FOR

2 OBSERVERS.— 

3 ‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—A State shall provide 

4 each individual who is acting as a designated con5 gressional election observer for an election for Fed6 eral office with full access to clearly observe all ele7 ments of election administration procedures, includ8 ing, but not limited to, access to any area in which 

9 a ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, can10 vassed, recounted, audited, or certified, including 

11 during pre- and post-election procedures. 

12 ‘‘(2) RESTRICTIONS ON ACTIVITIES OF OBSERV13 ERS.—No designated congressional election observer 

14 may handle a ballot or election equipment (whether 

15 voting or nonvoting or whether tabulating or nontab16 ulating), advocate for any position or candidate, take 

17 any action to reduce ballot secrecy or voter privacy, 

18 take any action to interfere with the ability of a 

19 voter to cast a ballot or an election administrator to 

20 carry the administrator’s duties, or otherwise inter21 fere with the election administration process. 

22 ‘‘(3) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 

23 this section shall prohibit a designated congressional 

24 election observer from asking questions of an elecVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:22 Oct 05, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H9779.IH H9779

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1 tion administrator, election official, or election work2 er, or any other State or local official. 

3 ‘‘(c) CONDUCT OF OBSERVERS.— 

4 ‘‘(1) REMOVAL.— 

5 ‘‘(A) AUTHORIZATION REMOVAL BY ELEC6 TION OFFICIAL.—If a State or local election of7 ficial has a reasonable basis to believe that a 

8 designated congressional election observer has 

9 engaged in or imminently will engage in intimi10 dation or deceptive practices prohibited by Fed11 eral law, or in the disruption of voting, proc12 essing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, or re13 counting of ballots, or the certification of re14 sults, a State or local election official may re15 move that observer from the area involved. 

16 ‘‘(B) NOTICE TO COMMITTEE.—If a des17 ignated congressional election observer is re18 moved from an area under subparagraph (A), 

19 the election official shall, within 24 hours of the 

20 observer’s removal— 

21 ‘‘(i) inform the chair and ranking mi22 nority member of the Committee on House 

23 Administration of the House of Represent24 atives or the Committee on Rules and AdVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:22 Oct 05, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H9779.IH H9779

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1 ministration of the Senate, as applicable; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(ii) provide written notice detailing 

4 the reason or reasons the designated con5 gressional election observer was removed. 

6 ‘‘(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—For purposes 

7 of this subsection, the mere presence of a designated 

8 congressional election observer during an observation 

9 of election administration procedures, without any 

10 additional indicia supporting a reasonable basis for 

11 removal, is not a sufficient reason for removal under 

12 paragraph (1)(A). 

13 ‘‘(3) RIGHT TO REPLACE OBSERVER.—If a des14 ignated congressional election observer is properly 

15 removed under paragraph (1)(A), the chair or rank16 ing minority member of the Committee on House 

17 Administration of the House of Representatives or 

18 the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 

19 Senate, as appropriate, may send another designated 

20 congressional election observer as a replacement for 

21 the remaining duration of the observation of election 

22 administration procedures. 

23 ‘‘(d) DESIGNATED CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB24 SERVER DESCRIBED.—In this section, a ‘designated con25 gressional election observer’ is a House or Senate emVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:22 Oct 05, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H9779.IH H9779

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1 ployee who is designated in writing by the chair or ranking 

2 minority member of the Committee on House Administra3 tion of the House of Representatives or the Committee on 

4 Rules and Administration of the Senate, or a successor 

5 committee, to gather information with respect to an elec6 tion, including in the event that the election is contested 

7 in the House of Representatives or the Senate and for 

8 other purposes permitted by article 1, section 5, clause 

9 1 and article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitution 

10 of the United States. 

11 ‘‘(e) STATE DEFINED.—In this section ‘State’ means 

12 each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com13 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Is14 lands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth 

15 of the Northern Mariana Islands.’’. 

16 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN17 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

18 is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 

19 304’’. 

20 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

21 of such Act is amended— 

22 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec23 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 

24 306; and 


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1 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec2 tion 303 the following: 

‘‘Sec. 304. Confirming access for congressional election observers.’’. 

Æ 


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