Recent polling is good news for advocates of a utility-backed solar amendment on Florida’s ballot in November.
Saint Leo University found an overwhelming percentage of voters support Amendment 1, but that doesn’t mean they understand what it would do.
A statewide mailer from the group Consumers for Smart Solar is urging voters to approve its constitutional amendment, which includes the St. Leo poll results, showing 80 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of Democrats and 84 percent of independents support it.
Pollster Frank Orlando’s online survey of 475 likely voters asked whether they support the amendment, based solely on its ballot title language: “Grants Florida residents the right to own or lease equipment that produces solar energy for personal use.”
Orlando said it’s going to have a good chance of passing, but the title is misleading without the ballot summary.
“Many of the people voting for it, if they knew that it would probably restrict the ability — for example — to sell solar to adjoining properties, they may not be for it,” he said.
Orlando said his poll does not show whether people agree with the proposal’s details.
“It’s almost kind of surprising that the state supreme court allowed that verbage to go through because it is going to be very misleading for voters,” he said.
When asked why Consumers for Smart Solar included the poll on its mailer, the group’s Screven Watson said it’s still a good indication of the amendment’s chances.
“Voters are intelligent. They’re going to read, but a lot of times they make decisions when they’re in that booth based on the title language,” he said.
Watson also pointed out that it wasn’t the only favorable survey for the amendment. He says other polls that made the amendment’s intent clear still got broad support, like a Florida Chamber poll showing two-thirds of Floridians favored the measure. Watson said his group is supported by a coalition, including the NAACP, that agrees Floridians should have both the right to own solar and refuse to subsidize it.
Opponents of Amendment 1 say it’s meant to consolidate private utility’s control of solar by giving non-solar customers the right to refuse paying for the tax subsidies people with solar panels use.
The title, they say, focuses only on one of the amendment’s provisions —-- the right to use solar —-- which already exists in Florida.
Orlando says he’ll have another poll about the amendment out in late October. Meanwhile, expect more mailers and commercials in support of Amendment 1 as Consumers for Smart Solar have raised an overall total of more than $21 million
