We were sitting in the family room anticipating the beginning of the best football matchup of the season, the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, both undefeated at game time, when the unwelcome, computerized electioneering calls started up again.
For the past seven days, my caller ID has been recording an incessant stream of these inane messages from out-of-area and unidentified political telemarketing firms, wasting more $ that could be put to better use. Does anyone seriously believe that this practice will have any impact upon voters, except to annoy the dickens out of them?
When politicians make law, you can always rely on this: They will invariably make sure to look out for their own self-interest. Guaranteed! When the Do-Not-Call Registry went into effect on October 1, 2003, legislators exempted themselves. The result has been incessant election-time barrages of computer-driven phone calls.
It isn’t soliciting voters over the phone that’s bad. It’s that none of these calls are personally from a human being asking for support. Getting a personal call from an elected official: Now that’s something tangible and worthwhile. What you receive, instead, is a flood of digital computer 0’s and 1’s coming to you over the phone in the guise of a human voice. And to make matters worse, they just don’t quit.
There is a way to intercept this political garbage, but why should you and I pay a fee to the phone company to block computerized calls from politicians and special interest groups? Not receiving unsolicited, unwanted telemarketing calls is precisely what the Do-Not-Call Registry is designed to do. Except, that is, for politicians.
Note: To read consumer facts about the National Do-Not-Call Registry, see the Federal Trade Commission at, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/donotcall.shtm
2 comments:
You might enjoy this recent commentary on those annoying election telephone calls:
Another thing guaranteed to annoy the voters is the automated “Vote For Me” telephone calls or, even worse, the “Don’t vote for my opponent” calls or “Don’t vote for the other party” calls. Unfortunately those “Do Not Call” lists don’t apply to political advertising.
I did receive one call asking for my vote several years ago that I liked so much that I actually voted for the candidate based only on that call. It was a lady running for the Board of Education who made an in-person call asking for my vote. Her pitch went something like this:
“Hi, my name is [Jane Doe] and I am running for the Board of Education and I would really appreciate your vote. I hope that I am not disturbing you and thank you for your time. Do you have any questions that you would like to ask me?”
Despite being stunned by the politeness and personal touch of the entire call, I recovered enough to ask a question about her stand on one item, which she politely answered. But her answer didn’t even matter at that point. She already had my vote.
http://hillsboroughnjjournal.blogspot.com/2007/10/silly-signs-of-season.html
Thanks for pointing out your positive experience with a board of education candidate. These candidates don't usually have the deep pockets of the political parties behind them. They often will make their own calls and sometimes have their backers make personal calls on their behalf.
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