The ban took effect on April 27, ending a seven-month court battle. It prohibits smoking in most public buildings in a city in the heart of the burley tobacco belt.

The Lexington Herald-Leader polled more than 400 likely voters, asking whether they supported or opposed the ban.

Of the 403 respondents, 47 percent favored the ban and 50 percent opposed it. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.6 percentage points, indicating public opinion was locked in a statistical dead heat.

Follow-up interviews conducted by the newspaper revealed clear-cut points of view.

"I quit eating out when they did that," said retired Fayette County police officer Charley Purvis, 75, who opposed the ban. "Our rights are gone."

Julia Evelsizer, 25, who works for the University of Kentucky police department, said the ban has improved her social life. She doesn't smoke and avoids second-hand smoke when she can.

"If I went to a local bar with my friends, it was guaranteed that I was going to be sick the next couple of days with a cold or something," she said.

Ellen Hahn, a tobacco-control researcher at the University of Kentucky and an advocate of the ban, said more people will support it as they realize its benefits.

She questioned whether the poll results represent all of Fayette County because only likely voters were surveyed.

"We need to wait for the truly random sample," Hahn said.

She added that the UK Survey Research Center is surveying 1,000 residents on their attitudes about the ban.

That survey could be completed in December, she said. It will be compared with a similar survey last year that showed 57 percent favored a ban.

Jason Miller, 24, is a bartender at Rosebud, a downtown restaurant and bar. He said the ban has pushed smokers outside, increasing chances of someone getting hit by a car, and creating more work for police.

"It has caused all these patios to spring up on sidewalks," he said. "You used to have all these bars that were nice and tidy and now they are out in the street."

Bar and restaurant owners are worried about what will happen to their business when cold weather settles in and smokers don't want to use the patios, he said.

For some, how they feel about the ban is closely tied to how they feel about smoking.

Tom Peek, 55, retired from a construction materials company, favors the ban because he gave up smoking 20 years ago.

"I've always felt like a person that really wanted to give it up could," he said.

"I have never really liked smoking that much."