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To amend section 304 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to affirm access for congressional election observers to primary elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.
Summary
- Amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to expand the definition of "election for Federal office" to explicitly include primary elections.
- Affirms that election observers have access to primary elections as well as general, special, and runoff elections in which candidates for U.S. Senate or House of Representatives appear on the ballot.
- Clarifies that states and political parties are not required to provide observer access to party conventions, caucuses, or other candidate selection processes that do not involve ballots.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Fuller, Clay [R-GA-14] (R-GA)
Actions (2)
- Jul 2, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on House Administration. · house
- Jul 2, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 2, 2026
Mr. Fuller introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration
A BILL
To amend section 304 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to affirm access for congressional election observers to primary elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “COCOA Voter Integrity and Primaries Act” or the “COCOA-VIP Act”.
SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION OF “ELECTION FOR FEDERAL OFFICE”.
Section 304 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21083a) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(f) Election for Federal Office Defined.—
“(1) Definition.—In this section, the term ‘election for Federal office’ includes any general, special, primary, or runoff election conducted by ballot in which one or more candidates for the United States Senate or the United States House of Representatives (including any Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress) appear on the official ballot.
“(2) Rule of construction.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a State or political party to provide observer access to party conventions, caucuses, or other candidate selection processes that do not involve ballots listing candidates for Federal office.”. <all>
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