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Union Calendar No. 296 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6513 

[Report No. 118–361] 

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 

NOVEMBER 30, 2023 

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

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

JANUARY 29, 2024 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 

and ordered to be printed 


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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. 


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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; FINDINGS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Confirmation Of Congressional Observer Access Act of 

6 2023’’ or the ‘‘COCOA Act of 2023’’. 

7 (b) FINDINGS RELATING TO CONGRESSIONAL ELEC8 TION OBSERVERS.—Congress finds the following: 

9 (1) Article 1, section 5, clause 1 of the Con10 stitution grants Congress the authority to ‘‘be the 

11 Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications 

12 of its own Members’’. 

13 (2) The House of Representatives serves as the 

14 final arbiter over any contest to the seating of any 

15 putative Member-elect. 

16 (3) Congress has exercised this authority—and 

17 responsibility—since our Nation’s very beginning, 

18 from the First Congress through the One Hundred 

19 Eighteenth Congress. Over our history, election con20 tests have remained a normal and regular part of 

21 the biennial process for electing, recognizing, and 

22 seating new Members. Although Congress has opted 

23 to revise the statutory framework by which it con24 siders election contests, consideration of such con25 tests has been a regular and recurring part of ConVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Jan 29, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6513.RH H6513

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1 gress’ constitutional prerogatives and work. For ex2 ample, across our Nation’s history, more than ap3 proximately 610 elections have been contested in the 

4 House—an average of more than 5 per Congress. 

5 Indeed, even discounting the Reconstruction period 

6 and its surge in election contests, there have been 

7 110 contested election cases considered in the House 

8 since 1933—an average of more than 2 contests per 

9 Congress. 

10 (4) These election contest procedures are con11 tained in the precedents of each House of Congress. 

12 Further, for the House of Representatives the proce13 dures exist under the Federal Contested Elections 

14 Act. 

15 (5) For decades, the House of Representatives 

16 has appointed its staff to watch the administration 

17 of congressional elections in the States and terri18 tories. Critically, congressional observers serve to 

19 gather real-time information and data for the House 

20 in anticipation of an election contest being filed. 

21 SEC. 2. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OBSERV22 ERS. 

23 (a) ACCESS REQUIRED.—Title III of the Help Amer24 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amend25 ed— 


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1 (1) by redesignating section 304 and 305 as 

2 sections 305 and 306; and 

3 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 

4 new section: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 304. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB6 SERVERS. 

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

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

9 the authority to send congressional election observers to 

10 observe polling locations, any location where processing, 

11 scanning, tabulating, canvassing, recounting, auditing, or 

12 certifying voting results is occurring, or any other part 

13 of the process associated with elections for Federal office 

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

15 clause 1 and article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitu16 tion of the United States. Procedures described herein do 

17 not establish any new authorities or procedures with re18 spect to Congress’ constitutional authority to observe con19 gressional elections but are provided simply to permit a 

20 convenient statutory reference for existing congressional 

21 authority and activity. 

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

23 OBSERVERS.— 

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

25 each individual who is acting as a designated conVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Jan 29, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6513.RH H6513

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1 gressional election observer for an election for Fed2 eral office with full access to clearly observe all ele3 ments of election administration procedures, includ4 ing, but not limited to, access to any area in which 

5 a ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, can6 vassed, recounted, audited, or certified, including 

7 during pre- and post-election procedures. 

8 ‘‘(2) RESTRICTIONS ON ACTIVITIES OF OBSERV9 ERS.—No designated congressional election observer 

10 may handle a ballot or election equipment (whether 

11 voting or nonvoting or whether tabulating or nontab12 ulating), advocate for any position or candidate, take 

13 any action to reduce ballot secrecy or voter privacy, 

14 take any action to interfere with the ability of a 

15 voter to cast a ballot or an election administrator to 

16 carry the administrator’s duties, or otherwise inter17 fere with the election administration process. 

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

19 this section shall prohibit a designated congressional 

20 election observer from asking questions of an elec21 tion administrator, election official, or election work22 er, or any other State or local official. 

23 ‘‘(c) CONDUCT OF OBSERVERS.— 

24 ‘‘(1) REMOVAL.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) AUTHORIZATION REMOVAL BY ELEC2 TION OFFICIAL.—If a State or local election of3 ficial has a reasonable basis to believe that a 

4 designated congressional election observer has 

5 engaged in or imminently will engage in intimi6 dation or deceptive practices prohibited by Fed7 eral law, or in the disruption of voting, proc8 essing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, or re9 counting of ballots, or the certification of re10 sults, a State or local election official may re11 move that observer from the area involved. 

12 ‘‘(B) NOTICE TO COMMITTEE.—If a des13 ignated congressional election observer is re14 moved from an area under subparagraph (A), 

15 the election official shall— 

16 ‘‘(i) inform the chair and ranking mi17 nority member of the Committee on House 

18 Administration of the House of Represent19 atives; and 

20 ‘‘(ii) provide written notice detailing 

21 the reason or reasons the designated con22 gressional election observer was removed. 

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

24 of this subsection, the mere presence of a designated 

25 congressional election observer during an observation 


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1 of election administration procedures, without any 

2 additional indicia supporting a reasonable basis for 

3 removal, is not a sufficient reason for removal under 

4 subparagraph (A). 

5 ‘‘(3) RIGHT TO REPLACE OBSERVER.—If a des6 ignated congressional election observer is properly 

7 removed under subparagraph (A), the chair or rank8 ing minority member of the Committee on House 

9 Administration of the House of Representatives, as 

10 appropriate, may send another designated congres11 sional election observer as a replacement for the re12 maining duration of the observation of election ad13 ministration procedures. 

14 ‘‘(4) CLARIFICATION REGARDING APPLICA15 BILITY OF CODE OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT.—It is the 

16 sense of Congress that, because the Code of Official 

17 Conduct for the House of Representatives (rule 

18 XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives) 

19 requires all employees of the House to behave at all 

20 times in a manner that reflects creditably on the 

21 House, an employee of the House who serves as a 

22 designated congressional election observer is subject 

23 to the Code of Official Conduct in the employee’s 

24 role as such an observer. 


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1 ‘‘(d) DESIGNATED CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB2 SERVER DESCRIBED.—In this section, a ‘designated con3 gressional election observer’ is a House employee (as con4 templated by the Rules of the House of Representatives) 

5 who is designated in writing by the chair or ranking mi6 nority member of the Committee on House Administration 

7 of the House of Representatives, or the successor com8 mittee, to gather information with respect to an election, 

9 including in the event that the election is contested in the 

10 House of Representatives and for other purposes per11 mitted by article 1, section 5, clause 1 and article 1, sec12 tion 4, clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States. 

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

14 each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com15 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Is16 lands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth 

17 of the Northern Mariana Islands.’’. 

18 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN19 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

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

21 304’’. 

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

23 of such Act is amended— 


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1 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec2 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 

3 306; and 

4 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec5 tion 303 the following: 

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


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ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
Union Calendar No. 296 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6513 

[Report No. 118–361] 

A BILL 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to 

congressional elections. observe the election administration procedures in to designated congressional election observers to confirm the requirement that States allow access 

JANUARY 29, 2024 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS