IIB 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6513 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and 

Administration 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS. 

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

3 ‘‘Confirmation Of Congressional Observer Access Act of 

4 2023’’ or the ‘‘COCOA Act of 2023’’. 

5 (b) FINDINGS RELATING TO CONGRESSIONAL ELEC6 TION OBSERVERS.—Congress finds the following: 

7 (1) Article 1, section 5, clause 1 of the Con8 stitution grants Congress the authority to ‘‘be the 

9 Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications 

10 of its own Members’’. 

11 (2) The House of Representatives serves as the 

12 final arbiter over any contest to the seating of any 

13 putative Member-elect. 

14 (3) Congress has exercised this authority—and 

15 responsibility—since our Nation’s very beginning, 

16 from the First Congress through the One Hundred 

17 Eighteenth Congress. Over our history, election con18 tests have remained a normal and regular part of 

19 the biennial process for electing, recognizing, and 

20 seating new Members. Although Congress has opted 

21 to revise the statutory framework by which it con22 siders election contests, consideration of such con23 tests has been a regular and recurring part of Con24 gress’ constitutional prerogatives and work. For ex25 ample, across our Nation’s history, more than ap26 proximately 610 elections have been contested in the 


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

2 Indeed, even discounting the Reconstruction period 

3 and its surge in election contests, there have been 

4 110 contested election cases considered in the House 

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

6 Congress. 

7 (4) These election contest procedures are con8 tained in the precedents of each House of Congress. 

9 Further, for the House of Representatives the proce10 dures exist under the Federal Contested Elections 

11 Act. 

12 (5) For decades, the House of Representatives 

13 has appointed its staff to watch the administration 

14 of congressional elections in the States and terri15 tories. Critically, congressional observers serve to 

16 gather real-time information and data for the House 

17 in anticipation of an election contest being filed. 

18 SEC. 2. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OBSERV19 ERS. 

20 (a) ACCESS REQUIRED.—Title III of the Help Amer21 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amend22 ed— 

23 (1) by redesignating section 304 and 305 as 

24 sections 305 and 306; and 


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1 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 

2 new section: 

3 ‘‘SEC. 304. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB4 SERVERS. 

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

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

7 the authority to send congressional election observers to 

8 observe polling locations, any location where processing, 

9 scanning, tabulating, canvassing, recounting, auditing, or 

10 certifying voting results is occurring, or any other part 

11 of the process associated with elections for Federal office 

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

13 clause 1 and article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitu14 tion of the United States. Procedures described herein do 

15 not establish any new authorities or procedures with re16 spect to Congress’ constitutional authority to observe con17 gressional elections but are provided simply to permit a 

18 convenient statutory reference for existing congressional 

19 authority and activity. 

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

21 OBSERVERS.— 

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

23 each individual who is acting as a designated con24 gressional election observer for an election for Fed25 eral office with full access to clearly observe all eleVerDate Sep 11 2014 16:52 Sep 11, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6513.RFS H6513

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1 ments of election administration procedures, includ2 ing, but not limited to, access to any area in which 

3 a ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, can4 vassed, recounted, audited, or certified, including 

5 during pre- and post-election procedures. 

6 ‘‘(2) RESTRICTIONS ON ACTIVITIES OF OBSERV7 ERS.—No designated congressional election observer 

8 may handle a ballot or election equipment (whether 

9 voting or nonvoting or whether tabulating or nontab10 ulating), advocate for any position or candidate, take 

11 any action to reduce ballot secrecy or voter privacy, 

12 take any action to interfere with the ability of a 

13 voter to cast a ballot or an election administrator to 

14 carry the administrator’s duties, or otherwise inter15 fere with the election administration process. 

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

17 this section shall prohibit a designated congressional 

18 election observer from asking questions of an elec19 tion administrator, election official, or election work20 er, or any other State or local official. 

21 ‘‘(c) CONDUCT OF OBSERVERS.— 

22 ‘‘(1) REMOVAL.— 

23 ‘‘(A) AUTHORIZATION REMOVAL BY ELEC24 TION OFFICIAL.—If a State or local election of25 ficial has a reasonable basis to believe that a 


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1 designated congressional election observer has 

2 engaged in or imminently will engage in intimi3 dation or deceptive practices prohibited by Fed4 eral law, or in the disruption of voting, proc5 essing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, or re6 counting of ballots, or the certification of re7 sults, a State or local election official may re8 move that observer from the area involved. 

9 ‘‘(B) NOTICE TO COMMITTEE.—If a des10 ignated congressional election observer is re11 moved from an area under subparagraph (A), 

12 the election official shall— 

13 ‘‘(i) inform the chair and ranking mi14 nority member of the Committee on House 

15 Administration of the House of Represent16 atives; and 

17 ‘‘(ii) provide written notice detailing 

18 the reason or reasons the designated con19 gressional election observer was removed. 

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

21 of this subsection, the mere presence of a designated 

22 congressional election observer during an observation 

23 of election administration procedures, without any 

24 additional indicia supporting a reasonable basis for 


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1 removal, is not a sufficient reason for removal under 

2 subparagraph (A). 

3 ‘‘(3) RIGHT TO REPLACE OBSERVER.—If a des4 ignated congressional election observer is properly 

5 removed under subparagraph (A), the chair or rank6 ing minority member of the Committee on House 

7 Administration of the House of Representatives, as 

8 appropriate, may send another designated congres9 sional election observer as a replacement for the re10 maining duration of the observation of election ad11 ministration procedures. 

12 ‘‘(4) CLARIFICATION REGARDING APPLICA13 BILITY OF CODE OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT.—It is the 

14 sense of Congress that, because the Code of Official 

15 Conduct for the House of Representatives (rule 

16 XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives) 

17 requires all employees of the House to behave at all 

18 times in a manner that reflects creditably on the 

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

20 designated congressional election observer is subject 

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

22 role as such an observer. 

23 ‘‘(d) DESIGNATED CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB24 SERVER DESCRIBED.—In this section, a ‘designated con25 gressional election observer’ is a House employee (as conVerDate Sep 11 2014 16:52 Sep 11, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6513.RFS H6513

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1 templated by the Rules of the House of Representatives) 

2 who is designated in writing by the chair or ranking mi3 nority member of the Committee on House Administration 

4 of the House of Representatives, or the successor com5 mittee, to gather information with respect to an election, 

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

7 House of Representatives and for other purposes per8 mitted by article 1, section 5, clause 1 and article 1, sec9 tion 4, clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States. 

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

11 each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com12 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Is13 lands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth 

14 of the Northern Mariana Islands.’’. 

15 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN16 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

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

18 304’’. 

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

20 of such Act is amended— 

21 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec22 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 

23 306; 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.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 9, 

2024. 

Attest: KEVIN F. MCCUMBER, 

Clerk. 


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