Home > Articles > Yes, Virginia, there IS a... Font size:
Tell a friend
Yes, Virginia, there IS a political 'do not call' list
Monday, July 21, 2008Monday, July 21, 2008
I knew it was going to be a good week when a gentleman named Shaun Dakin responded to my last post about the Obamamatrons. While my blog was intended to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, this guy is REALLY mad about political robo-calls and is doing something about them.
Below you'll find the transcript of his email to me, with links to his Web site. Be advised that while a list does exist, relatively few politicians have agreed to honor it, so far.
Cathy,
I saw your story about the robo calls and thought you would be interested in what we are doing.
Nancy Boyda (D-Kansas) has joined with us and pledged not to robo call people on the National Political Do Not Contact Registry database.
Regarding the National Political Do Not Call Registry, here are some good links on this issue.
:Feel free to pass this around as you see fit.
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
My Blog has the latest links to local and national robocall issues and stories including audio.
Blog: http://blog.StopPoliticalCalls.org/
PEW Center Data On the issue:
2006 Study (Over 60% of all Americans received robocalls in 06 cycle) - http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/197/report_display.asp
2007 November Study (81% of Iowa voters received robocalls) - http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=377
2008 Study (Robocalls now top type of campaign communications) - http://pewresearch.org/pubs/785/robo-calls-election-2008
My Background:
Shaun Dakin - CEO and Founder: The National Political Do Not Contact Registry, www.StopPoliticalCalls.org
Testified at the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration 2.27 - http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2008/022708hrg.htm
Feature story on Shaun Dakin on front page of Politico.com 2.28 - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8742.html
Success to date (from launch 10.24.2007):
Almost 50,000 members in 6 months (launch 10.24.07)
Five politicians signed up for the “do not robo call” pledge including Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Nancy Boyda (D-KS).
Leading Democratic robo calling firm has also joined and agreed to not call voters on the NPDNC registry - http://www.democraticdialing.com/
Front page of USA Today and many other media outlets including Reader’s Digest (March, 2008)
We just put up a “Candidate Section” of the website with a full explanation of the 2 variants of the pledge and downloads of the PDF file of the pledges.
Candidate Section is at --> http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org/ht/d/sp/i/184/pid/184
Recently, I had an Op-Ed on robocalls in three papers, including the Charlotte and Fayetteville Observer.
National – Politico.com - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9978.html
Charlotte, NC - http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/604480.html
Fayetteville, NC - http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=292795
Evidence suggests that robo calls are not effective. They are efficient (cheap), but not effective.
The fact that the only evidence based significant study on the effectiveness of robo calls (Drs. Gerber and Green of Yale) concluded that they do not work. That is, the only real “lift” provided by any voter contact tactic was “door to door” canvassing rather than robo calls.
More data at the following links:
**Latest summary of the book: http://www.campaignsandelections.com/stories/?StoryID=9676332F-1422-17E0-F8951556E52821AB
Link to book: link to Yahoohttp://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2008/getoutthevotesecondedition.aspx
Summary of book: http://www.washblog.com/story/2006/1/9/112813/5311
Our evidence suggests that the candidate that robocalls the most, loses the most credibility and, ultimately, votes.
Most of the members of my organization say that the candidate the robo calls is the candidate that loses their vote (and contributions).
Here are some quotes from members who joined recently:
"I tend to not vote for the person who calls me the most. I am up late at night and these calls wake me up for no real reason. I can get the information they are trying to send from other sources with a lot more detail."
"They impact my life by helping to decide who NOT to vote for. These systems are an annoyance and getting them assists me in choosing against you."
"Calling just annoys me and I assure you it has nothing to do with my vote. I vote on issues, if you annoy me enough I will look at the opponents more thoroughly."
"I will not vote for ANY candidate, even my pick, if I receive any calls from them. I have voted in every election since I became of age without any phone calls & I don't need them now!"