Limits Sought on ‘Robocalls’ in Campaigns

Source: New York Times

By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: April 25, 2007

LINCOLN, Neb. — State investigators here are still trying to figure out who sabotaged Scott Kleeb’s campaign for Congress last November with a barrage of automated telephone calls to voters. The unauthorized calls, officials said, distorted Mr. Kleeb’s views and even used a recording of his voice — sometimes arriving in the middle of the night — with the greeting: “Hi, this is Scott Kleeb!”

Several Nebraska state lawmakers were so outraged by the shenanigans that they are pushing legislation that would impose some of the country’s most restrictive regulations on prerecorded campaign calls, both bogus and legitimate ones. Similar bills are in the works in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and at least a dozen other states, prompted in large part by telephone calls authorized by campaigns during last year’s elections.

Nearly two-thirds of registered voters nationwide received the recorded telephone messages, which as political calls are exempt from federal do-not-call rules, leading up to the November elections, according to a survey http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Robocalls06.pdf by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, an independent research group. The calls, often known as robocalls, were the second most popular form of political communication, trailing only direct mail, the group said.

Some residents in Mr. Jordan’s district received 17 calls a day, he said. In the Third Congressional District of Nebraska, voters reported getting as many as 20 calls daily — many of them purportedly from Mr. Kleeb’s campaign — at all hours of the day and night.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/us/politics/25calls.html?hp

---

It's about time. This shit needs to be outlawed!

n/t.

Democrats could have actually won a few more seats were it not for this Karl Rove bullshit.

It's just that '06 was SUCH a bad year for the Republicans, that the tidal wave offset the RWNM. The mechanism of it still works, but we now know that it's not impervious.

Let's go after those who abuse it. Let's prosecute those who made the fake calls! That's voter abuse and shouldn't be tolerated.

I don't always like robocalls but they are effective if used properly.

if the listener does not listen to the whole (or most) of the message. So it seems as if the campaign the message initially sounds like the call is being made for - is harassing the person being called (eg you hang up, it auto calls right back).

Robert E. Kaiser, president of telemarketingconsultant.com, which makes automated political calls, said he was concerned for people who might actually want to get the messages.

“You might not think there would be a segment of the public that would want the calls, but there probably is,” Mr. Kaiser said.



Have you ever heard of a person who stated that they "want" to get the message from the negative robo calls?

I hate those fers.