Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HB4134 Compare Versions

Version 1 (Old)

Version 2 (New)

Old	New		Differences
1		-	~~85R27995~~ ATP-F
	1	+	85R12637 ATP-F
2	2		By: Fallon H.B. No. 4134
3		-	Substitute the following for H.B. No. 4134:
4		-	By: Laubenberg C.S.H.B. No. 4134
5	3
6	4
7	5		A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
8	6		AN ACT
9		-	relating to the creation of the ~~criminal~~ offense of engaging in
10		-	~~organized~~ election fraud activity.
	7	+	relating to the creation of the offense of engaging in organized
	8	+	election fraud activity.
11	9		BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
12	10		SECTION 1. Chapter 276, Election Code, is amended by adding
13	11		Sections 276.011 and 276.012 to read as follows:
14	12		Sec. 276.011. ENGAGING IN ORGANIZED ELECTION FRAUD
15	13		ACTIVITY. (a) A person commits an offense if, with the intent to
16	14		establish, promote, maintain, benefit from, or participate in a
17	15		vote harvesting organization, the person commits, attempts to
18	16		commit, or conspires to commit one or more offenses under Titles 1
19	17		through 7.
20	18		(b) An offense under this section is one category higher
21	19		than the most serious offense listed in Subsection (a) that is
22	20		committed, and if the most serious offense is a Class A misdemeanor,
23	21		the offense is a state jail felony.
24	22		(c) At the punishment stage of a trial, the defendant may
25	23		raise the issue as to whether in voluntary and complete
26	24		renunciation of the offense the defendant withdrew from the vote
27	25		harvesting organization before commission of an offense listed in
28	26		Subsection (a) and made substantial effort to prevent the
29	27		commission of the offense. If the defendant proves the issue in the
30	28		affirmative by a preponderance of the evidence the offense is the
31	29		same category of offense as the most serious offense listed in
32	30		Subsection (a) that is committed.
33	31		(d) In this section, "vote harvesting organization" means
34	32		three or more persons who collaborate in unlawful vote generating
35	33		or accumulating activities, although participants may not know each
36	34		other's identity, membership in the organization may change from
37	35		time to time, and participants may stand in a candidate-consultant,
38	36		donor-consultant, consultant-field operative, or other arm's
39	37		length relationship in the organization's unlawful vote generating
40	38		or accumulating operations.
41	39		(e) For purposes of this section, "conspires to commit"
42	40		means that a person agrees with one or more persons that they or one
43	41		or more of them engage in conduct that would constitute the offense
44	42		and that person and one or more of them perform an overt act in
45	43		pursuance of the agreement. An agreement constituting conspiring
46	44		to commit may be inferred from the acts of the parties.
47	45		Sec. 276.012. LIABILITY FOR ENGAGING IN ORGANIZED ELECTION
48	46		FRAUD ACTIVITY. (a) In this section, "organized election fraud
49	47		activity" means an offense under Section 276.011(a).
50	48		(b) A person who engages in, or intentionally or knowingly
51	49		benefits from, organized election fraud activity is liable to a
52	50		candidate or other person harmed by the activity as provided by this
53	51		section.
54	52		(c) It is not a defense to liability under this section that
55	53		a defendant has been acquitted or has not been prosecuted or
56	54		convicted for an offense under this code, or has been convicted of a
57	55		different offense or of a different type or class of offense, for
58	56		the conduct that is alleged to give rise to liability under this
59	57		section.
60	58		(d) A claimant who prevails in a suit under this section
61	59		shall be awarded:
62	60		(1) actual damages caused by the prohibited conduct;
63	61		(2) $1,000 for each offense committed under Titles 1
64	62		through 7;
65	63		(3) court costs; and
66	64		(4) reasonable attorney's fees.
67	65		(e) The cause of action created by this chapter is
68	66		cumulative of any other remedy provided by common law or statute.
69	67		(f) A person who engages in or intentionally or knowingly
70	68		benefits from organized election fraud activity and is found liable
71	69		under this section or other law for any amount of damages arising
72	70		from the activity is jointly liable with any other defendant for the
73	71		entire amount of damages arising from the organized election fraud
74	72		activity.
75	73		(g) A civil action or proceeding under this section against
76	74		any person may be brought in the county where any part of the
77	75		activity occurred.
78	76		(h) This section shall be liberally construed and applied to
79	77		promote its underlying purpose to protect candidates against
80	78		unlawful organized election fraud activity and to provide efficient
81	79		and economical procedures to secure that protection.
82	80		SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
83	81		to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
84	82		An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
85	83		governed by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and
86	84		the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes
87	85		of this section, an offense was committed before the effective date
88	86		of this Act if any element of the offense occurred before that date.
89	87		SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.