Beck v. State

• Decision Date: 27 June 1979
• Docket Number: No. 58054,No. 3,58054,3
• Citation: 583 S.W.2d 338
• Parties: Garner W. BECK, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 338

583 S.W.2d 338

Garner W. BECK, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 58054.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, Panel No. 3.

June 27, 1979.

Allen C. Isbell, Houston, for appellant.

Carol S. Vance, Dist. Atty. and W. Scott Carpenter, Asst. Dist. Atty., Houston, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before ODOM, PHILLIPS and W. C. DAVIS, JJ.

OPINION

PHILLIPS, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for violating the Political Funds Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1975. Acts 1975, 64th Leg., ch. 711, p. 2257 et seq., effective September 1, 1975; V.T.C.A., Election Code, sec. 14.07. ¹ The punishment was assessed by the jury at 30 days' confinement in jail and a fine of.$1000.00.

In seven grounds of error, appellant challenges the constitutionality of Article 14.07, supra, on grounds that it is vague, indefinite, and uncertain; it violates his freedoms of speech, association, and associational privacy; it violates his rights to equal protection of the law; and the caption to the original Act is insufficient.

At the outset we set forth the purpose of the Election Code:

Article 1.01

The aim in adopting this Code is to state in plain language the laws governing the nomination and election of officers and of holding other elections, to simplify, clarify and harmonize the existing laws in regard to parties, suffrage, nominations, and elections, and to safeguard the purity of the ballot box against error, fraud, mistake and corruption, to the end that the will of the people shall prevail and that true democracy shall not perish from the Lone Star State. To that end the provisions of this Code shall apply to all elections and primaries held in this State, except as otherwise provided herein. Acts 1951, 52nd Leg., p. 1097, ch. 492, art. 1.

The applicable provisions of the Election Code provide:

(B) Each opposed candidate whose name is printed on the ballot, each write-in candidate taking affirmative action in an election and each political committee involved in an election concerning a candidate or measure shall file a sworn statement at each time required herein. Each office-holder and political committee as defined in Subsections (O)(2), (P)(2), or (Q)(2) in Section 237 (Article 14.01) of this Code, shall file a sworn statement as required herein.

(C) The statements filed by a candidate, or officeholder, shall list all contributions received and all expenditures made by the candidate, the office-holder, his campaign treasurer, and his assistant campaign treasurers during the appropriate reporting period as described in Subsection (H) of this section. The statements filed by a political committee, or a campaign treasurer representing the same, shall list all contributions received and expenditures made by the committee during the appropriate reporting period as described in Subsection (H) of this section. Each statement shall include the dates and amounts and the full name and complete address of each person from whom contributions in an aggregate amount of more than $50 has been received or borrowed during the appropriate reporting period as described in Subsection (H) of this section. Each statement shall also include the dates and amounts and the full names and complete addresses of all persons to whom any expenditures aggregating more than $50 was made during the appropriate reporting period, and the purpose of such expenditures. Each report shall also include a total of all contributions received and all expenditures made during the appropriate reporting period and a total of all contributions of $50 and less received and all expenditures of $50 and less made during the appropriate reporting period.

(E) Such statements shall be accompanied by the following affidavit verified by the person filing the statement:

"I do solemnly swear that the foregoing statement, filed herewith, is in all things true and correct, and fully shows all information required to be reported by me pursuant to the Political Funds Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1975."

(F) The statement and oath shall be filed as follows: . . . ; for a district office (any office of the state government, less than statewide, which is filled by the choice of the voters residing in more than one county) or a state office, or statewide measure, or other constitutionally designated members of the Executive Department, with the secretary of state; . . . The deadline for filing any statement required under this section is 5 p. m. of the last day designated in the pertinent subsection for filing the statement. When the last day of filing falls on a Saturday or Sunday or an official state holiday enumerated in Article 4591, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1925, as amended, the deadline for filing is extended to 5 p. m. of the next day which is not a Saturday or Sunday or enumerated holiday. A statement shall be deemed to be timely filed if it is placed in the United States Post Office or in the hands of a common or contract carrier properly addressed to the appropriate authority within the time limits applicable to the statement. The postmark or receipt mark (if received by a common or contract carrier) will be prima facie evidence of the date that such statement was deposited with the post office or carrier. The person making the report may show by competent evidence that the actual date of posting was to the contrary.

(H)(1)(a) Candidates and the campaign treasurers of specific purpose political committees as defined in subsection (P)(1) of Section 237 (Article 14.01), shall file sworn statements at the times required in paragraph (4) of this subsection.

(H)(4) Every candidate or specific purpose political committee shall file three sworn statements relating to the election in which such person is involved in addition to any statement as provided in paragraph (6) below. The three sworn statements shall be filed not later than the 30th day prior to the election, not later than the 7th day prior to the election, and not later than the 30th day after the election, respectively. A candidate who has been nominated by his party's primary in lieu of filing his third statement which encompasses nine (9) days prior to twenty-five (25) days after the election shall include in his first statement prior to the general election all previously unreported contributions and expenditures. The period reported in the first such statement shall begin on the day of campaign treasurer designation, and end on and include the 40th day prior to the election. The period reported in the second such statement shall begin on the 39th day before the election and end on and include the 10th day before the election. The period reported in the third such statement shall begin on the 9th day before the election and end on and include the 25th day after the election. In the event a candidate or specific purpose political committee becomes involved in an election after the end of any period covered by the regular reports otherwise required herein, the first applicable sworn statement shall be filed at the next regularly required deadline and its reporting period shall begin on the date of designation of campaign treasurer.

(H)(6) Each year after the last deadline for filing a statement of contributions and expenditures, an additional statement shall be filed, provided, however, if there have been no expenditures made or contributions knowingly accepted since the last required reporting period, or if any contributions knowingly accepted and any expenditures made have all been reported under Subsection (H)(1)(b) of this section, there shall be no filing required. The annual statement shall be filed on or before January 15 (following the last filing) and the period shall cover all previously unreported contributions and expenditures through and including the 31st day of December.

(H)(9) Final Statement. A candidate or political committee may cease filing sworn statements regarding a campaign after a final statement has been filed and designated as such. Any of the required sworn statements may constitute a final statement if its filing results in the completion of the reporting of all contributions and expenditures involved in an election, together with the appropriate related information, required to be reported.

(I)(1) If any candidate, office-holder, or campaign treasurer of a political committee fails to file a sworn statement containing all information required by this chapter within 15 days of the deadline provided herein, such person shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

(L) Statements filed under this Section shall be open to public inspection. They shall be preserved for a period of two years, after which they may be destroyed unless a court of competent jurisdiction has ordered their further preservation.

(M) No charge shall be levied for the filing of any report required by this section.

Appellant's twelfth ground of error challenges the requirements of Article 14.07, supra, as being indefinite, vague, and uncertain and thereby vesting unfettered, arbitrary and capricious discretion in the authorities responsible for enforcing its provisions: the Secretary of State, State Attorney General, and the local district attorney. The foundation for his challenge consists of civil appeal courts' decisions that have erected a judicially created defense of "substantial compliance" (State v. Crawford, 269 S.W.2d 536 (Tex.Civ.App. El Paso 1954, no writ); Gray v. State, 406 S.W.2d 934 (Tex.Civ.App. Ft. Worth 1966, writ dism'd); Hoeneke v. Lehman, 542 S.W.2d 728 (Tex.Civ.App. San Antonio 1976, no writ)) because the time for filing of the mandatory reports was directory. This conclusion rested on the fact that the applicable statutory schedule for filing the required reports in those cases provided for a period of days in which the report could be filed. In contrast, the schedule applicable to appellant gave fixed points in time for the filing of...