3 U.S.C. § 21
Section 21 · Definitions
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Republican Natl Cmte v. Wetzel (2024)
Most recently applied in Republican Natl Cmte v. Wetzel (October 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
As used in this chapter the term—
(1) "election day" means the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year succeeding every election of a President and Vice President held in each State, except, in the case of a State that appoints electors by popular vote, if the State modifies the period of voting, as necessitated by force majeure events that are extraordinary and catastrophic, as provided under laws of the State enacted prior to such day, "election day" shall include the modified period of voting.
(2) "State" includes the District of Columbia.
(3) "executive" means, with respect to any State, the Governor of the State (or, in the case of the District of Columbia, the Mayor of the District of Columbia), except when the laws or constitution of a State in effect as of election day expressly require a different State executive to perform the duties identified under this chapter.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Editorial Notes
Amendments
2022—Pub. L. 117–328, §102(b), added par. (1) and redesignated former subsecs. (a) and (b) as pars. (2) and (3), respectively.
Par. (3). Pub. L. 117–328, §104(b), added par. (3) and struck out former par. (3), as redesignated from subsec. (b), which read as follows: " 'executives of each State' includes the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia."
Executive Documents
Transfer of Functions
Except as otherwise provided in Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1967, eff. Aug. 11, 1967 (in part), 32 F.R. 11669, 81 Stat. 948, functions of Board of Commissioners of District of Columbia transferred to Commissioner of District of Columbia by section 401 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1967. Office of Commissioner of District of Columbia, as established by Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1967, abolished as of noon Jan. 2, 1975, by Pub. L. 93–198, title VII, §711, Dec. 24, 1973, 87 Stat. 818, and replaced by office of Mayor of District of Columbia by section 421 of Pub. L. 93–198.