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Article published Sep 19, 2007
Elections officials reverse polling decision By Paige St. John Florida Capital Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- On second thought, Florida election officials say, it IS all right for political committees to ask voters what they think about the issues.

Rescinding an Aug. 20 legal opinion, the Florida Division of Elections on Tuesday issued a new letter telling a gay rights group it can hire professional pollsters to survey voters on ballot issues.

The organization, Red and Blue Florida, seeks to join with other special interests in polling Floridians on a proposed ban on gay marriage. It opposes any such ban.

State lawyers initially said that because only candidates are expressly allowed by law to poll voters, any other group, including political action committees and even political parties, could not.

Political activists said that interpretation made no sense, and Tuesday's follow-up opinion concurred.

"On the other hand, however, given the history of the statutory provision and because polling activities implicate the First Amendment right to free speech, it is reasonable to conclude the legislature did not intend to infringe upon this right any more than necessary to accomplish its expressed goal of regulating candidate polls," elections attorney Amy Tuck wrote.

"Therefore, although the language of the statute is not entirely clear, we believe the better interpretation is to construe its purpose as being to impose restrictions upon candidate polling without imposing any similar restrictions upon issue polling."
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