Florida elections officials will begin enforcing a law which changes the state's "rules of political engagement": campaigns can't ask voters about the issues.For example, political committees that push or want to defeat ballot initiatives, such as changing Florida's property tax structure, can't survey voters to find out how they feel about the issue.
A lawyer for the Department of State's Division of Elections issued the advisory opinion last week, at the request of a political committee that wanted to know if it could co-sponsor such polls with other groups, and if so, how to report the costs.
"Truthfully, no one ever posed the question before, but the law is very clear," said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the department.
Though the opinion applies only to polls by political committees, it refers to a statute that, if read the same way, also would stop political parties and, beginning in January, electioneering organizations from surveying voters on issues.
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