Nov. 13, 2006
Voters to Candidates: Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You
By Chris Heagarty
RALEIGH - Have you ever seen a scary movie where a young girl, home alone, is terrorized by a ringing phone, with some horrible evil on the other end of the line harassing her? Is that horror-movie fiction becoming more of a reality in your home every election season?
A caller to the N.C. Center for Voter Education recently explained that it wasn’t negative politics that kept him from voting, but the constant harassment by recorded messages flooding his phone.
“I made a pledge not to vote for any candidate who used a recorded message to contact me,” said the caller, “and to vote for his or her opponent, unless the opponent was dangerously unqualified.”
However, there was one flaw in this plan, the caller explained.
“This past year, I had so many calls from candidates running for the same office that I couldn’t vote for any of them. I ended up only voting in the sheriff’s race, and for those soil and water district supervisors.”
The caller’s frustration is typical of many calls we get during election season, when many politicians rely on automated telephone messages to contact voters. This practice is popular with candidates and their political consultants, because it can reach many voters for a very small amount of money.
Is it legal? Many voters assume that if they signed the national “No-Call Registry” that political candidates may not call them, but that’s not true. In North Carolina, you can still be called by political candidates and parties, as well as charities, even if you are on the list. Since politicians make the laws, and use these calls to their advantage, don’t count on this changing anytime soon, especially when such calls are defended as “protected political speech.”
As bad as some state voters might have had it, North Carolina was spared the worst of the telemarketing chaos, as some campaigns in New Hampshire wouldn’t take no for an answer. If voters hung up, the automated dialer would call them back. If voters voted the wrong way in their automated survey, it would call them back until they changed their vote.
Constant calling aside, what troubles many voters even more is the lack of disclosure about who is calling them. While sometimes the phone calls are positive messages, reminding people to vote, many times they are smear campaigns or nasty attacks disguised as polls. Who is really calling? The voter will likely never know.
“I received a phone call from someone who said they were conducting a survey for Greer Beaty, and I stopped them immediately and told them that wasn’t possible because I am Greer Beaty and I hadn’t approved any telephone calls,” says a legislative candidate who received one of many mysterious phone calls that rang through her district. But despite Beaty’s protestations, all the way up to the caller’s manager, no one would ever tell her who was really paying for the calls. They insisted they did not have to reveal their client, under state law.
Beaty was, understandably, very disturbed by this lack of disclosure, especially when everything from yard signs to bumper stickers are required to state who’s paid for them.
“I support free speech, but you have to own it,” explains Beaty. “You need to stand by what you say and take responsibility for it.”
So what can be done?
Jaimey Sexton, president of Telephone Strategies Group, Inc., is one of the leaders in the field of political phone calls, and he understands voters’ frustrations.
“The industry is supposed to play by a set of rules,” he explains, citing professional standards his company follows, “but some vendors choose to ignore or abuse them.” He adds that many states require a disclosure statement at the end of automated calls, to alert voters to their source. Further, Sexton stresses the value of live callers, who can respond to voter concerns, and identify problems.
Sexton’s company gives voters a choice, including a toll-free number voters can call to leave their telephone number and ask to be removed from further calls. Much like how people can opt-out of unwanted e-mail.
But what if you receive automated calls with no such opt-out option?
“Call the campaign’s offices,” suggests Sexton. “Be sure to tell them when you were called and as much of the message as you can, along with your complaint.”
Makes perfect sense to me -- if candidates are going to flood your house with calls, why not turn the tables and call them?
Chris Heagarty is the executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving elections in North Carolina.
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