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(Radio) Can You Stop Political Robocalls

(97.3 KIRO FM)

Can you stop political calls?

Does this sound familiar? You've put the baby down for a nap or your eating dinner and the phone rings.

You grab the phone and an automated voice tells you why you should or should not vote for a particular cause or candidate.

Nicknamed "robo calls" they've become a staple of the political season. However, "there are parts of the population where this is more than just - hey, hang up the phone. It becomes a big issue," says Shaun Dakin.

Since starting his National Political Do Not Contact Registry. A woman who contacted him recently says, "Her mother has dementia and she [the mother] gets these robo calls and she attempts to get into a conversation with the robo call and gets incredibly agitated." The woman becomes so upset her daughter has to come home from work and take care of her.

Dakin came up with the idea for his do not call registry after he worked the other end of the phone, calling on behalf of a national political campaign, and got some angry responses, "I thought I was on the do not call list. Why are you calling me?"

He says political calls, even automated, robo calls, are exempt from the national do-not-call list, so Dakin started his own. It's voluntary. He says some political campaigns honor it, others do not.

"At some point the politicians will just get so much blow-back that they will not exempt themselves from the federal do not call list," Dakin says.

In the meantime, he says, if you don't like getting political calls, he suggests you contact your local campaigns, elected leaders and political parties. And keep contacting them, because, "The day after the election the robo calls will stop. There's 100 percent guarantee the robo calls will stop on Wednesday, and the politicians count on the fact that you will forget."