Voters in Washington County to take action vs. robocalls
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Voters in Washington County say they are steamed about the political robocalls they received before the May 18 primary election, and they plan to take action against those annoying pre-recorded phone messages and the politicians responsible for them.
"We want to stop politicians from using the robocall, because they've abused it," said Nellie Chester, a longtime Democratic committeewoman from Somerset Township.
Ms. Chester said she fielded hundreds of complaints from voters who were assailed with robocalls from both parties in the weeks and months leading up to the primary, and said she and her friends and neighbors have begun circulating a petition that will ask state lawmakers to include political calls in the statewide Do Not Call registry.
Telemarketers are prohibited from calling those who sign up for the eight-year-old registry, though nonprofit organizations and political groups can still make unsolicited calls to any land line. There is also a national registry with the same regulations.
One of the complaints Ms. Chester heard came from 84-year-old Clyde Henry, also of Somerset.
"You can't believe the calls I get; I even got 12 on a Sunday," said Mr. Henry, who plans to help distribute the petition. "The really disgusting thing is that you can't talk to a person. You can't ask questions or say anything."
Ms. Chester, 65, said the complaints get worse with every election, and the number of robocalls has tripled in the past two years, frustrating committee representatives like her, who are hamstrung.
"We're out there working on getting them elected, but people are telling me that if they get a robocall from a candidate, they won't vote for them," she said.
Joseph DiSarro, the head of the political science department at Washington & Jefferson College, called robocalls "pitiful campaign tools" that have been abused to the point that they are counterproductive.
"Whatever purpose it was designed to serve has outlived its usefulness," said Dr. DiSarro, who said the calls previously worked for new candidates and challengers looking to get their name and message out to voters.
But these days, candidates from both parties employ the calls as a "last-ditch, inexpensive method," to provoke voters, sometimes through misinformation, to hit the polls.
Depending on volume, the calls cost approximately one-quarter of 1 cent each, far less than direct mail or media advertising, said Shaun Dakin, CEO and founder of the nonprofit, non-partisan Citizens for Civil Discourse, a group devoted to eliminating robocalls by asking politicians to voluntarily abstain from the practice.
First Published June 1, 2010 12:00 am
