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Legislator wants to limit political robo-calls

(The Daily Reporter (OH))For Ohioans who hate hearing pre-recorded messages from politicians when they pick up their phones, Rep. Tom Collier may have a solution.

Collier's House Bill 506 proposes that citizens could sign up for a political do-not-call list, similar to the national do-not-call list for commercial enterprises.

"Anything we can do to encourage people to vote and participate in our democratic system is important, but I think these automated calls have gotten to the point where they're annoying and actually discourage some (people) from participating," said Collier.

Collier previously addressed the issue by introducing a similar bill, House Bill 558, in the 126th General Assembly. The bill received one hearing in the House Elections and Ethics Committee then was abandoned due to concerns that one phone customer's decision may restrict other household members' access to political speech.

"Some have raised concerns that this limits political speech. I don't think political speech goes so far as to mandate that somebody must answer a phone and listen to a recorded message," said Collier.

At least one organization has taken up the cause for frustrated voters.

The non-profit group Citizens for Civil Discourse is promoting its National Political Do Not Contact Registry as a cooperative effort between politicians and voters.

So far, two U.S. Congresswomen, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., have signed the National Political Do-Not-Contact registry and agreed not to utilize robo-calls.

Foxx has also introduced a bill in congress to expand the Federal Trade Commission's Federal Do-Not-Call Registry to allow voters to opt out of political robo-calls.

Shaun Dakin, founder and CEO of Citizens for Civil Discourse, proposes to do for campaign calls what the FTC's registry has done to commercial telephone solicitations.

"I know that Ohio gets hit hard by any political activity you can imagine. We got a lot of members joining recently," said Dakin.

Among the National Political Do-Not-Call Registry's 50,000 members nationwide, about 1,000 are from Ohio.

Legislators in Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Colorado are considering restricting or placing a ban on robo-calls.

Collier acknowledged that while the proposals in his bill would be more effective if enacted at a federal level, they still are relevant as small steps in getting a conversation about a political do-not-call list started.

"This is just a way to get the movement going. If we don't do that, the opportunity for that to happen at a federal level is greatly reduced," said Collier.