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A rise in the number of automated political calls during the September primary elections has prompted a Florida representative to create a plan for privacy.
Rep. Stan Jordan, R-Jacksonville, is drafting a bill aimed at extending the Do Not Call Registry to political "robocalls." Though he has not submitted the bill yet, he said he has gotten positive feedback from fellow legislators, as well as the public.
"Democratic and Republican House representatives have written me and said what a great idea this is," Jordan said. "Everyone recognizes it has reached a level of aggravation and intrusion, instead of awareness."
Some, though, say automated calling is here to stay as a relatively inexpensive marketing tool for candidates with limited funds.
Jacksonville political consultant John Finotti said automated calls are a good way for candidates with smaller budgets to get their messages out to voters. Calls are aimed at "supervoters," voters who have a record of voting in previous primary and general elections.
Though there is and will be a place for automated calls in political campaigns, Finotti said the heightened buzz about automated calls could be due to overuse of the tool.
"Some of the campaigns went overboard with the number of calls," he said. "But there's a place for them, especially in campaigns where you don't have a lot of money. They are a cost-effective way of delivering your message directly to focused potential voters."
Candidates have many options for automated calling. Some choose independent firms, such as Win-Your-Race LLC, based in Longwood, while others choose to buy the necessary equipment and program the calls themselves.
Calling likely voters
Win-Your-Race, formerly Campaign Magic, has been in the automated calling business for 10 years, owner Mac Wright said. So far this election season, Wright has 100 clients, mostly political campaigns for local seats, though he did help one U.S. Senate candidate.
Wright said his firm finds voting records of those most likely to vote, and can make up to 30 million calls a day. The client chooses how many calls to make and when. Wright would not discuss pricing.
Many automated calling companies do not publicly broadcast pricing structures, but Iowa-based Victory Enterprises advertises its price structure on its Web site. Calls are priced based on length and number of calls, and range from 5.5 cents a call for a 30-second call to 200,000 or more people to 22 cents a call for a 50-second call to between 1,000 and 4,000 people.
Buying an automated dialing system is also an option. One product, Winlead Autodialer Software, offers system configurations for up to 24 different phone lines that run through a computer program. Each phone line can make about 1,000 calls a day. The Winlead system costs $300 for 12 phone lines and $550 for 24 phone lines, including the software and training.
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