---
kind: "section"
citation: "3 U.S.C. § 21"
title: "3"
title_heading: "The President"
number: "21"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/3/21"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — Presidential Elections and Vacancies"
---

# §21. Definitions


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](#2), except, in the case of a [State](#2) that appoints electors by popular vote, if the [State](#2) modifies the period of voting, as necessitated by force majeure events that are extraordinary and catastrophic, as provided under laws of the [State](#2) 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](#2), the Governor of the [State](#2) (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](#2) in effect as of [election day](#1) expressly require a different [State](#2) executive to perform the duties identified under this chapter.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 87–389, § 2(a), Oct. 4, 1961, 75 Stat. 820; amended Pub. L. 117–328, div. P, title I, §§ 102(b), 104(b), Dec. 29, 2022, 136 Stat. 5233, 5235.)

## Notes

### 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.