  We calculate elastic electron-deuteron scattering in a chiral effective field
theory approach for few-nucleon systems based on a modified Weinberg power
counting. We construct the current operators and the deuteron wave function at
next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) order simultaneously
within a projection formalism. The leading order comprises the impulse
approximation of photons coupling to point-like nucleons with an anomalous
magnetic moment. At NLO, we include renormalizations of the single nucleon
operators. To this order, no unknown parameters enter. At NNLO, one
four-nucleon-photon operator appears. Its strength can be determined from the
deuteron magnetic moment. We obtain not only a satisfactory description of the
deuteron structure functions and form factors measured in electron-deuteron
scattering but also find a good convergence for these observables.
