While the attorney general's office attempts to determine who was behind phone calls to voters about Mitt Romney's Mormon faith and lack of military service, it remains unclear whether those calls broke the law against certain types of "push polling."

Several pollsters said the Romney calls likely constitute what's known as opposition research, not illegal push polling, based on news accounts of the incident. Designed to test candidates' weaknesses, opposition research polls - described by one pollster as "theme testing" - are typically bankrolled by other candidates and advocacy groups. Sometimes candidates even test out their own drawbacks.

"Most candidates will do some kind of opposition testing," said David Moore, the former senior editor of the Gallup poll and a senior fellow at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "How often it's employed really depends on how a candidate wants to run a campaign."

A push poll, in contrast, "is designed to convince the person on the phone not to vote for somebody," said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. "What's reported to have happened here in New Hampshire, that kind of thing has been going on forever. But this . . . technique of slamming your opponent with a quick telephone call is a more modern phenomenon."

In Romney's case, voters in New Hampshire and Iowa received phone calls asking about Romney's religion: Whether they knew Romney was a Mormon, that the Mormon faith didn't allow blacks as bishops into the 1970s and that Mormons consider the Book of Mormon more important than the Bible, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the calls this month.

The 20-minute calls also posed other questions about Romney - callers asked voters whether they knew that he received military deferments and that his five sons haven't served in the military - and made positive statements about Republican rival John McCain. According to the Associated Press, the polls were conducted by Utah-based company Western Wats.

News of the calls spurred denunciations from Romney and McCain and prompted an attorney general-led investigation.

Although pollsters might not consider the Romney case push polls, the calls might qualify under state law. In New Hampshire, push polling is defined as calling voters on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate and "asking questions related to opposing candidates for public office which state, imply or convey information about the candidates' character, status or political stance or record."

In and of itself, such polling isn't illegal, said Jim Kennedy of the attorney general's office. He is charged with investigating the polling complaints.

But the calls' legal standing may hinge on caller identification. Those conducting push polls are required to inform anyone they reach that the call is being made on behalf of, in support of, or in opposition to a particular candidate. They also need to identify that candidate by name and provide a telephone number for the company conducting the poll.

"That's the key here, really," Kennedy said of the Romney calls.

A statement on the Western Wats website says the company "has never, currently does not, nor will it ever engage in push polling." A Western Wats spokesman wouldn't comment, however, on whether the company orchestrated the calls in question, according to the Associated Press.

Kennedy and others from the attorney general's office are identifying and interviewing individuals who received the Romney calls. If they determine that a violation of election law occurred, they will attempt to determine who hired the company to conduct the poll.

"If we need documents pursuant to any election violation, we won't hesitate to use our subpoena power," Kennedy said.

Defining the difference

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