H.R. 9577: COCOA Voter Integrity and Primaries Act

This bill would change federal election law to make clear that primary elections for U.S. House and Senate seats count as “elections for Federal office” for purposes of a section of the Help America Vote Act that deals with election observers.

What that means in practice

• It would explicitly include general, special, primary, and runoff elections on the official ballot where at least one candidate for the U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives appears.
• This would mean the federal rules in that section would apply not just to the final election in November, but also to primary elections for congressional races.
• The bill says this does not require states or political parties to let observers into party conventions, caucuses, or other candidate-selection processes that do not use ballots listing federal candidates.

Overall effect

The main effect is to make sure that access for congressional election observers covers primary elections as well as other ballot-based elections for Congress. It would not change how parties choose candidates in non-ballot settings such as caucuses or conventions.

Relevant Companies

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