Advisory Opinion 96-04
Date
04/18/1996
Number
96-04
Requester
Confidential
Topic
Mailing - Newsletters - Questionnaire results
Issue/Question
During an election year a legislator mailed a newsletter which included a questionnaire and which provided constituents an opportunity to check a box if they wanted to receive the results of the questionnaire on legislative issues. May this legislator respond to those requests without the response counting as another newsletter? Two newsletters during this restricted mailing timeframe are all that was allowed.
Summary
At the time of this opinion the applicable statute was RCW 42.17.132 - it is now 42.52.185. If the responses are in the form of individualized letters with a named individual in the address and in the salutation, and if the response is limited to containing the questionnaire results, then they will not be characterized as a newsletter but as an authorized individual letter responding to a constituent contact.