I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6513 

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 

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; 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: 


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1 (1) Article 1, section 5, clause 1 of the Con2 stitution grants Congress the authority to ‘‘be the 

3 Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications 

4 of its own Members’’. 

5 (2) The House of Representatives serves as the 

6 final arbiter over any contest to the seating of any 

7 putative Member-elect. 

8 (3) Congress has exercised this authority—and 

9 responsibility—since our Nation’s very beginning, 

10 from the First Congress through the One Hundred 

11 Eighteenth Congress. Over our history, election con12 tests have remained a normal and regular part of 

13 the biennial process for electing, recognizing, and 

14 seating new Members. Although Congress has opted 

15 to revise the statutory framework by which it con16 siders election contests, consideration of such con17 tests has been a regular and recurring part of Con18 gress’ constitutional prerogatives and work. For ex19 ample, across our Nation’s history, more than ap20 proximately 610 elections have been contested in the 

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

22 Indeed, even discounting the Reconstruction period 

23 and its surge in election contests, there have been 

24 110 contested election cases considered in the House 


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

2 Congress. 

3 (4) These election contest procedures are con4 tained in the precedents of each House of Congress. 

5 Further, for the House of Representatives the proce6 dures exist under the Federal Contested Elections 

7 Act. 

8 (5) For decades, the House of Representatives 

9 has appointed its staff to watch the administration 

10 of congressional elections in the States and terri11 tories. Critically, congressional observers serve to 

12 gather real-time information and data for the House 

13 in anticipation of an election contest being filed. 

14 SEC. 2. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OBSERV15 ERS. 

16 (a) ACCESS REQUIRED.—Title III of the Help Amer17 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amend18 ed— 

19 (1) by redesignating section 304 and 305 as 

20 sections 305 and 306; and 

21 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 

22 new section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 304. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB2 SERVERS. 

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

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

5 the authority to send congressional election observers to 

6 observe polling locations, any location where processing, 

7 scanning, tabulating, canvassing, recounting, auditing, or 

8 certifying voting results is occurring, or any other part 

9 of the process associated with elections for Federal office 

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

11 clause 1 and article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitu12 tion of the United States. Procedures described herein do 

13 not establish any new authorities or procedures with re14 spect to Congress’ constitutional authority to observe con15 gressional elections but are provided simply to permit a 

16 convenient statutory reference for existing congressional 

17 authority and activity. 

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

19 OBSERVERS.— 

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

21 each individual who is acting as a designated con22 gressional election observer for an election for Fed23 eral office with full access to clearly observe all ele24 ments of election administration procedures, includ25 ing, but not limited to, access to any area in which 

26 a ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, canVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Dec 06, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6513.IH H6513

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1 vassed, recounted, audited, or certified, including 

2 during pre- and post-election procedures. 

3 ‘‘(2) RESTRICTIONS ON ACTIVITIES OF OBSERV4 ERS.—No designated congressional election observer 

5 may handle a ballot or election equipment (whether 

6 voting or nonvoting or whether tabulating or nontab7 ulating), advocate for any position or candidate, take 

8 any action to reduce ballot secrecy or voter privacy, 

9 take any action to interfere with the ability of a 

10 voter to cast a ballot or an election administrator to 

11 carry the administrator’s duties, or otherwise inter12 fere with the election administration process. 

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

14 this section shall prohibit a designated congressional 

15 election observer from asking questions of an elec16 tion administrator, election official, or election work17 er, or any other State or local official. 

18 ‘‘(c) CONDUCT OF OBSERVERS.— 

19 ‘‘(1) REMOVAL.— 

20 ‘‘(A) AUTHORIZATION REMOVAL BY ELEC21 TION OFFICIAL.—If a State or local election of22 ficial has a reasonable basis to believe that a 

23 designated congressional election observer has 

24 engaged in or imminently will engage in intimi25 dation or deceptive practices prohibited by FedVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Dec 06, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6513.IH H6513

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1 eral law, or in the disruption of voting, proc2 essing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, or re3 counting of ballots, or the certification of re4 sults, a State or local election official may re5 move that observer from the area involved. 

6 ‘‘(B) NOTICE TO COMMITTEE.—If a des7 ignated congressional election observer is re8 moved from an area under subparagraph (A), 

9 the election official shall— 

10 ‘‘(i) inform the chair and ranking mi11 nority member of the Committee on House 

12 Administration of the House of Represent13 atives; and 

14 ‘‘(ii) provide written notice detailing 

15 the reason or reasons the designated con16 gressional election observer was removed. 

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

18 of this subsection, the mere presence of a designated 

19 congressional election observer during an observation 

20 of election administration procedures, without any 

21 additional indicia supporting a reasonable basis for 

22 removal, is not a sufficient reason for removal under 

23 subparagraph (A). 

24 ‘‘(3) RIGHT TO REPLACE OBSERVER.—If a des25 ignated congressional election observer is properly 


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1 removed under subparagraph (A), the chair or rank2 ing minority member of the Committee on House 

3 Administration of the House of Representatives, as 

4 appropriate, may send another designated congres5 sional election observer as a replacement for the re6 maining duration of the observation of election ad7 ministration procedures. 

8 ‘‘(4) CLARIFICATION REGARDING APPLICA9 BILITY OF CODE OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT.—It is the 

10 sense of Congress that, because the Code of Official 

11 Conduct for the House of Representatives (rule 

12 XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives) 

13 requires all employees of the House to behave at all 

14 times in a manner that reflects creditably on the 

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

16 designated congressional election observer is subject 

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

18 role as such an observer. 

19 ‘‘(d) DESIGNATED CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OB20 SERVER DESCRIBED.—In this section, a ‘designated con21 gressional election observer’ is a House employee (as con22 templated by the Rules of the House of Representatives) 

23 who is designated in writing by the chair or ranking mi24 nority member of the Committee on House Administration 

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1 mittee, to gather information with respect to an election, 

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

3 House of Representatives and for other purposes per4 mitted by article 1, section 5, clause 1 and article 1, sec5 tion 4, clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States. 

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

7 each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com8 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Is9 lands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth 

10 of the Northern Mariana Islands.’’. 

11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN12 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

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

14 304’’. 

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

16 of such Act is amended— 

17 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec18 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 

19 306; and 

20 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec21 tion 303 the following: 

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

Æ 


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