“What politician will end annoying political robo-calls?”

What politician will end annoying political robo-calls?

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 09:00 PM PDT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 25, 2010

Every election cycle it sweeps through households like the plague. Leaving people angry, cursing and wanting to do something about it. It's revisited us again, and we wish there was some way to stop it. Yes, we're talking about political robo-calls, those recorded messages from candidates and their cronies that light up our home phone lines for days leading up to an election.

It's bad enough having our senses overloaded by signs of every size promoting candidates on our roads. At least we can try to ignore them. Newspaper ads and television ads can also be ignored, as can direct mail and radio advertising. But there's no way to avoid the robo calls, short of shutting off your phone, and that's impractical.

If there's some free speech argument that allows these obnoxious calls, fine, but we could at least require any politician paying for these calls to give all of us his home and cell phone numbers so we can call him or her over dinner, during a movie, a nap or whenever they usually call us.

Just like the "Don't Call" telemarketing law, there should be a similar law that lets people opt out of receiving these calls. In fact, we shouldn't have to opt out. We should opt in if we want these calls. There's too much of this "opt out" baloney. The burden shouldn't be put on the public to tell others when we don't want something.

It's difficult to imagine that these calls work. They make people angry and a lot of folks say they won't vote for candidates who use this. That said, they must be effective or so much money wouldn't be used to produce them. How could they ever quantify if they are effective?

Robo calls are intrusive and even abusive as much as telemarketing calls ever were. Which brave politician will carry a bill eliminating of these calls to the forefront? That would be gutsy, considering he or she probably has used them in the past as well.

One thing's for sure, whomever stops robo calls will be a hero with the voters. That's a sure-fire way to get elected.

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