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Wired Magazine's Mr. Know-It-All Takes On Political Robo-Calling

(Wired Magazine)June, 2008. Brendan I. Koerner, AKA "Mr. Know-It-All"

Question:  I've been getting lots of calls from political pollsters, both human and robotic.  I'm on the National Do Not Call Registry and resent the intrusions.  How can I get them to stop?

Answer:  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but political pollsters are exempt from the Do Not Call restrictions - something that fewer than a quarter of registrants realize.   The exemption includes those weaselly push pollsters who ask questions along the lines of "Would you vote for Candidate X if we told you he hunted orphans for sport?"  Now matter how odious, such calls are considered political speech and protected under the first amendment.

As a result, there is not much you can do to frustrate the pollsters except hang up.  However, you should sign up for the National Political Do Not Contact Registry, operated by a Washington-based non-profit called Citizens for Civil Discourse.

The organization is asking politicians not to robo-call people on the registry; as of this writing, just two members of Congress - Nancy Boyda, a Kansas Democrat, and Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican -  have made that pledge.

The bottom line is that between now and election day, you're certain to get many more calls.  Do your best to remain philosophical about the nuisance:  there are people in North Korea and Myanmar who'd give anything to be polled just once.