Court Opinion

ID: 9764322
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:18:58.967748+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:55.833352
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
Today the majority clamps the lid of secrecy back onto election campaign financing despite the Legislature’s plain intent to remove it forever. In granting appellees immunity from public scrutiny of their election campaign financing, the majority ignores the controlling provisions of the Election Code, departs from our case law, and defeats the overriding public interest in “full, true, and detailed” election expense accounts, the first requirement and essential pillar of open, responsible, and good government. I dissent.
Appellee “Pennsylvanians For Shapp-Kline” (the Committee) was formed to raise funds for the re-election of appellees Milton Shapp and Ernest Kline to the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor in the 1974 election. Throughout the 1974 campaign, the Committee received campaign contributions used for the candidates’ election. On December 5, 1974, thirty days after Shapp and Kline were elected again, appellee Nancy Mawby, treasurer of the Committee, filed an election expense account with the Bureau of Elections, as required by Section 1607(a) of the Pennsylvania Election Code, Act of June 3,1937, P.L. 1333, as amended, 25 P.S. § 3227(a) (Supp.1977). The election expense account, detailing receipts and expenditures of the Committee, was never supplemented, amended, revised, or changed in any manner.
In May, 1976, appellee Nancy Mawby disclosed that some campaign contributions made before the November, 1974 election were not reported in the December, 1974 account. Appellee Mawby also disclosed that, for months following the November, 1974 election, substantial campaign contributions were made to the Committee but that none of these additional campaign contributions had been reported to the Bureau of Elections. On June 18,1976, within thirty days of *488appellee Mawby’s disclosure, appellants Robert Butera, Richard Tilghman, Stephen Friend, Nicholas Maiale, and James Ronca filed in the Commonwealth Court a petition to compel appellees to file a supplemental election expense account detailing the unreported campaign contributions made to the Committee and a petition to compel an audit of the December, 1974 account. The Commonwealth Court dismissed the petitions without hearing appellants’ claim and this appeal followed.
I. THE IMPROPRIETY OF APPELLEES’ FAILURE TO FILE A SUPPLEMENTAL ELECTION ACCOUNT
Section 1607(a) of the Election Code, 25 P.S. § 3227(a) provides:

“Expense accounts to be filed

(a) Every candidate for nomination or election, and every treasurer of a political committee, or person acting as such treasurer, shall within thirty days after every primary and election at which such candidate was concerned, if the amount received or expended or liabilities incurred shall exceed the sum of one hundred fifty dollars, file a full, true and detailed account, subscribed and sworn to by him, setting forth each and every sum of money received, contributed or disbursed by him for primary or election expenses, the date of each receipt, contribution and disbursement, the name of the person from whom received or to whom paid, and the specific object or purpose for which the same was disbursed. . . . ”
Section 1607(a) requires every candidate and treasurer of a political committee, within thirty days of a primary or election in which the candidate is involved, to file a “full, true, and detailed account” setting forth “each and every” campaign receipt, contribution, and disbursement. Because the December, 1974 election expense account failed to reflect both pre-election and post-election campaign contributions and expenditures, appellees’ account was not “full, true, and detailed” as legislatively mandated by Section 1607 and therefore appellees should be required to file a supplemental *489account reflecting “each and every” receipt and contribution.
The meaning of “full, true, and detailed” is plain and certainly does not mean, as the majority holds, less than full, partially true, and not detailed. As Justice (later Chief Justice) Jones stated: “[The Election] Code must be liberally interpreted to carry out the evident legislative intendment that expense accounts of candidates for public office and their committees might be subject to the closest scrutiny.” Friends of McErlean Appeal, 431 Pa. 334, 340, 246 A.2d 341, 344 (1968). Accord, 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1928(c) (Supp.1977); Lurie v. Republican Alliance, 412 Pa. 61, 192 A.2d 367 (1963). The reading given by this Court in McErlean promotes open, honest, and trustworthy elections, and requires elected officials to expose their election campaign to full public scrutiny rather than to merely selected disclosure. Our Legislature has pursued this goal of public disclosure not only in the Election Code but also in other legislation. See Act of July 19, 1974, P.L. 486, §§ 1 et seq., 65 P.S. §§ 261-269 (Supp. 1977) (“Sunshine Law”); Act of June 21, 1957, P.L. 390, §§ 1 et seq., as amended 65 P.S. §§ 66.1-66.4 (1959 and Supp. 1977) (“Right to Know” Act).
In the context of the electoral process, the language requiring “full, true, and detailed” accounts recording “each and every” expenditure manifests a clear legislative intention that candidates for public office and their campaign committees file complete, accurate, and truthful accounts of all election campaign receipts, contributions, and expenses. Any reading of the statute allowing a lesser degree of disclosure ignores the express legislative language and frustrates the achievement of this clear public policy.
The legislative directive requiring disclosure of campaign receipts and expenditures applies to all pre-election campaign activities. All campaign receipts and contributions made before the election to the candidate and his political committee must be accurately reported in order for the account to be “full, true, and detailed.”
*490In deciding whether the legislative directive applies with equal force to post-election receipts and contributions, we must consider how the Legislature has viewed such transactions. Section 1601(e) of the Election Code, 25 P.S. § 3221(e), clearly provides that all election expenses are to be treated the same, whether they are incurred before or after the primary or election. Section 1601(e) provides:
“The words ‘election expenses’ shall include all expenditures of money or other valuable things made, and liabilities incurred, in furtherance of or in respect to the election of any candidate for election to any public office, or to defeat the candidacy of any candidate for election to public office, whether such expenditures are made before, during, or after the election.”
By including in “election expenses” all expenditures, whether made “before, during, or after the election,” the Legislature has focused not on the timing of a campaign transaction but rather on the public reporting of the financial transaction itself. Thus, in order to file a “full, true, and detailed” account of “election expenses” as directed by Section 1607(a) of the Election Code, those subject to this disclosure requirement are required to report all receipts, contributions, and disbursements.
The Election Code’s thirty day filing period seeks to provide the public with the most complete accounting possible shortly after every election. But nothing in the Election Code suggests that campaign financial transactions occurring beyond the thirty day period are intended to be undisclosed and unreported. These transactions occurring after the filing period provide just as much potential for abuse as those antedating expiration of the filing period. The integrity of the electoral process is not advanced by requiring only that pre-filing transactions be disclosed.
There is no reason to refuse to account for campaign contributions and receipts occurring after the first accounting. To interpret the Election Code to allow campaign contributions and receipts after the first filing date to remain unreported may encourage some persons involved in *491campaign financing to postpone campaign financial transactions until thirty days after an election and thus avoid the potentially embarrassing consequences which may accompany certain campaign contributions and receipts. The majority’s reading of the Election Code approves a scheme which easily destroys the disclosure provisions which the Legislature intentionally put into the Election Code.
Appellee Nancy Mawby publicly revealed that the December, 1974 account of the Committee was incomplete in that it failed to include all receipts and contributions obtained before the December, 1974 account; moreover, appellee Mawby indicated that contributions were received after the December, 1974 account was filed. How then can it be said that the December, 1974 account was a “full, true, and detailed,” accounting of “each and every” receipt and expenditure of the Committee? Because the Election Code requires full disclosure of campaign financing, supplemental accounting is essential if a committee and candidates are to fulfill the statutory disclosure provisions. The majority’s interpretation to the contrary negates entirely the important purposes of the campaign financing disclosure provisions.
II. THE PROPRIETY OF APPELLANTS’ PETITION TO COMPEL AN AUDIT OF THE DECEMBER, 1974 ACCOUNT
Section 1611(a) of the Election Code, as amended, 25 P.S. § 3231(a) (Supp.1977), provides:

“Audit of expense accounts

(a) Within thirty days after the last day for filing any expense account and affidavit -required by this act any five electors of the State or of the political division may present a petition to the court of common pleas of the county in which is situated the office where such account has been filed or with the Commonwealth Court where a Statewide office is concerned, praying for an audit of such account. . . . ”
This Section, read in conjunction with Section 1607(a) of the Election Code, 25 P.S. § 3227(a), reveals a legislative plan *492requiring filing, within thirty days of an election, of a “full, true, and detailed account” of “each and every” transaction. Within thirty days of the last day for filing of expense accounts, any five electors are entitled to petition for an audit of the account filed. The possibility that election expense accounts may be subjected to the public scrutiny accompanying an audit provides the further need for candidates for public office to file proper and complete election expense accounts.
This Court has held that if an election expense account is not timely filed, the statutory time period for petitioning to compel an audit is suspended until electors have actual notice of the late filing. Friends of McErlean Appeal, 431 Pa. 334, 246 A.2d 341 (1968). In McErlean, we concluded that it would defeat the purposes of the Election Code to bar electors from petitioning to compel an audit in such circumstances. As Justice (later Chief Justice) Jones stated for this Court:
“Upon the filing of an expense account an opportunity must be given to those who might question the validity of such account to scrutinize carefully the receipts and expenditures listed in such account, to determine the legal validity of such receipts and expenditures and to ascertain whether the listed receipts and expenditures encompassed all the receipts and expenditures. To do so requires time; the Code recognizes such fact and grants twenty [now thirty] days for such purpose.”
Id. at 340, 246 A.2d at 344 (emphasis in original).
The issue here is whether the Election Code’s thirty day filing period for petitions for audits forever bars electors from filing a petition to compel an audit when an election expense account has been timely filed but is later found to be incomplete. Recent developments, both in and out of this Commonwealth, firmly indicate that the public interest in the integrity of elections must be promoted, rather than frustrated. In light of our Commonwealth’s goal of ensuring full, honest, and complete disclosure, and McErlean’s recognition of the need for the availability of such chai*493lenges-, it must be concluded that the thirty day time period is not intended to bar petitions for audits where an election expense account, though filed within the statutory time period, is not “full, true, and detailed” as required by Section 1607(a) of the Election Code. Thus, where electors have a reasonable basis, as this record establishes, for concluding that a timely election expense account has not satisfied the statutory requirement of a “full, true, and detailed” accounting, the thirty day time provision can have no applicability.
When appellee Nancy Mawby disclosed that certain campaign contributions made to the Committee were not reported in the December, 1974 election expense account, appellants could reasonably conclude that the December, 1974 election account was not “full, true, and detailed.” The reasonableness of their conclusion is fully supported by the record. Because these electors had no reason to believe that the December, 1974 account was incomplete when filed, the thirty day period should not apply and thus these electors should be permitted to compel an audit.
III. CONCLUSION
The Election Code imposes at least two obligations of campaign financing disclosure on political candidates and their committees: (1) to file an election expense account within thirty days of an election; and (2) to file a “full, true, and detailed” account. This dual responsibility is not satisfied by simply filing within the thirty day time period. Such procedural conformity cannot satisfy the far more important substantive obligation requiring complete disclosure of all receipts and contributions. Both the Legislature and the public are far more interested in ensuring that everybody is given a plain view of a candidate’s financial support.
Those who seek to be entrusted by the public with the responsibilities of public office must set an example not only of leadership, but also of integrity in their responses to the public interest in the conduct of their election and govern*494mental affairs. These examples are not set nor is the public interest served when that which is public business is kept from public scrutiny. Because the Legislature requires “full, true, and detailed” disclosure of election affairs, it is no answer to say — as the majority does — that the Election Code is insufficient and that the remedy for this failure to disclose lies with the Legislature. This Court should not condone appellees’ attempt to circumvent the important requirement of full public disclosure of campaign financing set forth in the Election Code.
I would reverse the order of the Commonwealth Court and direct that the court proceed to hear and determine the merits of this controversy.
POMEROY, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.