[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6513 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Confirmation Of 
Congressional Observer Access Act of 2023'' or the ``COCOA Act of 
2023''.
    (b) Findings Relating to Congressional Election Observers.--
Congress finds the following:
            (1) Article 1, section 5, clause 1 of the Constitution 
        grants Congress the authority to ``be the Judge of the 
        Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members''.
            (2) The House of Representatives serves as the final 
        arbiter over any contest to the seating of any putative Member-
        elect.
            (3) Congress has exercised this authority--and 
        responsibility--since our Nation's very beginning, from the 
        First Congress through the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress. 
        Over our history, election contests have remained a normal and 
        regular part of the biennial process for electing, recognizing, 
        and seating new Members. Although Congress has opted to revise 
        the statutory framework by which it considers election 
        contests, consideration of such contests has been a regular and 
        recurring part of Congress' constitutional prerogatives and 
        work. For example, across our Nation's history, more than 
        approximately 610 elections have been contested in the House--
        an average of more than 5 per Congress. Indeed, even 
        discounting the Reconstruction period and its surge in election 
        contests, there have been 110 contested election cases 
        considered in the House since 1933--an average of more than 2 
        contests per Congress.
            (4) These election contest procedures are contained in the 
        precedents of each House of Congress. Further, for the House of 
        Representatives the procedures exist under the Federal 
        Contested Elections Act.
            (5) For decades, the House of Representatives has appointed 
        its staff to watch the administration of congressional 
        elections in the States and territories. Critically, 
        congressional observers serve to gather real-time information 
        and data for the House in anticipation of an election contest 
        being filed.

SEC. 2. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OBSERVERS.

    (a) Access Required.--Title III of the Help America Vote Act of 
2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating section 304 and 305 as sections 305 
        and 306; and
            (2) by inserting after section 303 the following new 
        section:

``SEC. 304. ACCESS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OBSERVERS.

    ``(a) Finding of Constitutional Authority.--Congress finds that, 
regardless of legislative action, it has the authority to send 
congressional election observers to observe polling locations, any 
location where processing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, 
recounting, auditing, or certifying voting results is occurring, or any 
other part of the process associated with elections for Federal office 
under the authorities granted under article 1, section 5, clause 1 and 
article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitution of the United 
States. Procedures described herein do not establish any new 
authorities or procedures with respect to Congress' constitutional 
authority to observe congressional elections but are provided simply to 
permit a convenient statutory reference for existing congressional 
authority and activity.
    ``(b) Requiring States To Provide Access for Observers.--
            ``(1) Requirement.--A State shall provide each individual 
        who is acting as a designated congressional election observer 
        for an election for Federal office with full access to clearly 
        observe all elements of election administration procedures, 
        including, but not limited to, access to any area in which a 
        ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, canvassed, 
        recounted, audited, or certified, including during pre- and 
        post-election procedures.
            ``(2) Restrictions on activities of observers.--No 
        designated congressional election observer may handle a ballot 
        or election equipment (whether voting or nonvoting or whether 
        tabulating or nontabulating), advocate for any position or 
        candidate, take any action to reduce ballot secrecy or voter 
        privacy, take any action to interfere with the ability of a 
        voter to cast a ballot or an election administrator to carry 
        the administrator's duties, or otherwise interfere with the 
        election administration process.
            ``(3) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this section shall 
        prohibit a designated congressional election observer from 
        asking questions of an election administrator, election 
        official, or election worker, or any other State or local 
        official.
    ``(c) Conduct of Observers.--
            ``(1) Removal.--
                    ``(A) Authorization removal by election official.--
                If a State or local election official has a reasonable 
                basis to believe that a designated congressional 
                election observer has engaged in or imminently will 
                engage in intimidation or deceptive practices 
                prohibited by Federal law, or in the disruption of 
                voting, processing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, 
                or recounting of ballots, or the certification of 
                results, a State or local election official may remove 
                that observer from the area involved.
                    ``(B) Notice to committee.--If a designated 
                congressional election observer is removed from an area 
                under subparagraph (A), the election official shall--
                            ``(i) inform the chair and ranking minority 
                        member of the Committee on House Administration 
                        of the House of Representatives; and
                            ``(ii) provide written notice detailing the 
                        reason or reasons the designated congressional 
                        election observer was removed.
            ``(2) Rule of construction.--For purposes of this 
        subsection, the mere presence of a designated congressional 
        election observer during an observation of election 
        administration procedures, without any additional indicia 
        supporting a reasonable basis for removal, is not a sufficient 
        reason for removal under subparagraph (A).
            ``(3) Right to replace observer.--If a designated 
        congressional election observer is properly removed under 
        subparagraph (A), the chair or ranking minority member of the 
        Committee on House Administration of the House of 
        Representatives, as appropriate, may send another designated 
        congressional election observer as a replacement for the 
        remaining duration of the observation of election 
        administration procedures.
            ``(4) Clarification regarding applicability of code of 
        official conduct.--It is the sense of Congress that, because 
        the Code of Official Conduct for the House of Representatives 
        (rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives) 
        requires all employees of the House to behave at all times in a 
        manner that reflects creditably on the House, an employee of 
        the House who serves as a designated congressional election 
        observer is subject to the Code of Official Conduct in the 
        employee's role as such an observer.
    ``(d) Designated Congressional Election Observer Described.--In 
this section, a `designated congressional election observer' is a House 
employee (as contemplated by the Rules of the House of Representatives) 
who is designated in writing by the chair or ranking minority member of 
the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives, 
or the successor committee, to gather information with respect to an 
election, including in the event that the election is contested in the 
House of Representatives and for other purposes permitted by article 1, 
section 5, clause 1 and article 1, section 4, clause 1 of the 
Constitution of the United States.
    ``(e) State Defined.--In this section `State' means each of the 50 
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 
United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment Relating to Enforcement.--Section 401 of 
such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) is amended by striking ``and 303'' and 
inserting ``303, and 304''.
    (c) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents of such Act is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating the items relating to sections 304 and 
        305 as relating to sections 305 and 306; and
            (2) by inserting after the item relating to section 303 the 
        following:

``Sec. 304. Confirming access for congressional election observers.''.
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