I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2694
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to establish deadlines for
States to count the ballots cast in elections for Federal office and
to certify the results of elections for Federal office, and for other pur-
poses.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL7, 2025
Mr. O
BERNOLTE(for himself, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. KILEYof California, Mr.
F
ONG, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. ISSA, and Mr. MCCLINTOCK) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administra-
tion
A BILL
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to establish
deadlines for States to count the ballots cast in elections
for Federal office and to certify the results of elections
for Federal office, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Election Results Ac-4
countability Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF DEADLINES FOR COUNTING 1
BALLOTS AND CERTIFYING RESULTS OF FED-2
ERAL ELECTIONS. 3
(a) D
EADLINES.—Title III of the Help America Vote 4
Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20181 et seq.), as amended by 5
section 2(a) of the COCOA Act of 2024, is amended— 6
(1) by redesignating sections 305 and 306 as 7
sections 306 and 307; and 8
(2) by inserting after section 304 the following 9
new section: 10
‘‘SEC. 305. DEADLINES FOR COUNTING BALLOTS AND CER-11
TIFYING RESULTS. 12
‘‘(a) D
EADLINES.— 13
‘‘(1) C
OUNTING BALLOTS.—Not later than 72 14
hours after the closing of the polls for an election for 15
Federal office held in a State, the State shall count 16
not less than 90 percent of the ballots cast in the 17
election and make the result of the count publicly 18
available. 19
‘‘(2) C
ERTIFYING RESULTS.—Not later than 2 20
weeks after the closing of the polls for an election 21
for Federal office held in a State, the State shall— 22
‘‘(A) complete the counting of all of the 23
ballots cast in the election; and 24
‘‘(B) officially certify the result of the elec-25
tion and make the result publicly available. 26
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‘‘(b) EXCEPTIONS.—A State shall not be considered 1
to be out of compliance with the requirements of sub-2
section (a) if the Commission and the Attorney General 3
certify that the State’s failure to meet such requirements 4
is due to any of the following: 5
‘‘(1) A bona fide emergency, including— 6
‘‘(A) a major disaster (as defined in sec-7
tion 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-8
lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 9
5122)); 10
‘‘(B) a significant public health emergency, 11
such as a pandemic or widespread outbreak; or 12
‘‘(C) a cyberattack, data breach, or other 13
significant security threat to the election infra-14
structure. 15
‘‘(2) Technical difficulties, including— 16
‘‘(A) malfunctioning election equipment or 17
software; or 18
‘‘(B) errors in the tabulation of ballots or 19
the transmission of results that could not have 20
been reasonably anticipated or mitigated in ad-21
vance. 22
‘‘(3) The implementation of new election proce-23
dures or reforms and the State certifies that it is in 24
the process of complying with all such requirements, 25
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except that this paragraph applies only with respect 1
to the first election held after the implementation of 2
the new procedures or reforms. 3
‘‘(4) The conducting of a recount of the results 4
of the election. 5
‘‘(c) W
ITHHOLDING OFELECTIONADMINISTRATION 6
F
UNDS FORFAILURETOCOMPLYWITHDEADLINES.— 7
If the Commission and the Attorney General each certify 8
that a State is not in compliance with the requirements 9
of subsection (a) with respect to an election, the State may 10
not receive any funds from the Commission to support the 11
administration of subsequent elections unless— 12
‘‘(1) the State submits to the Commission and 13
the Attorney General a plan to ensure that the State 14
will comply with such requirements with respect to 15
such subsequent elections; and 16
‘‘(2) the Commission and the Attorney General 17
each certify that the State has taken actions to com-18
ply with such plan.’’. 19
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTRELATING TOEXIST-20
INGENFORCEMENT PROVISIONS.—Section 401 of such 21
Act (52 U.S.C. 21111), as amended by section 2(b) of the 22
COCOA Act of 2024, is amended by striking ‘‘and 304’’ 23
and inserting ‘‘304, and 305’’. 24
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(c) CLERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 1
of such Act, as amended by section 2(c) of the COCOA 2
Act of 2024, is amended— 3
(1) by redesignating the items relating to sec-4
tions 305 and 306 as relating to section 306 and 5
307; and 6
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-7
tion 304 the following: 8
‘‘Sec. 305. Deadlines for counting ballots and certifying results.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—This Act and the amend-9
ments made by this Act shall apply with respect to elec-10
tions held after the expiration of the 90-day period which 11
begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. 12
Æ
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