Pending legislation to address technology and election laws

Representative Eric Eisnaugle (R-Orlando) recentlyannounced his intention to file legislation in the upcoming 2010 legislative session to address a recent decision by the Florida Elections Commission that common search ads on services such as Google violate state election laws.

“Florida’s election laws were written well before the internet became a part of daily life for Floridians and do not recognize the important dynamic of online communications.  I plan on bringing together stakeholders in the technology community and state elections officials to help match our laws with the next generation of communications.

“Voters need transparency to clearly understand who is paying for campaign advertising, but the state’s laws should not be archaic.  I believe working together we can craft commonsense election laws that keep-up with these rapidly growing technologies and preserve the integrity of the elections process.”

House Majority Leader Adam Hasner (R-Boca Raton) added, “In the new media economy, technology advances faster than our laws can adapt.  We need to ensure that Florida’s laws keep pace with the technological changes that modern campaigns are now embracing to reach voters.  Representative Eisnaugle is to be commended for recognizing the importance of this issue and for working with all those involved to develop some commonsense solutions.”

Earlier this month, a candidate for mayor of St. Petersburg was recently notified by the Florida Elections Commission that he is violating state election law by promoting his candidacy through advertisements on Google and Facebook.  State election law requires a disclaimer stating who is paying for the ad and if it is supported by the candidate on all campaign print ads.  Such a disclaimer on these short, widely used search ads are both impractical and likely longer than the ad itself.

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Posted by admin on Aug 17 2009. Filed under Business, Tallahassee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry