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By the time election day hit, Nancy Luallen was so annoyed by the barrage of "robo calls" ruining her dinner hour that she said she "just wanted to vote NO!"
Luallen, of North Kansas City, was hardly alone. Thousands of irritated voters this year flooded regulators with complaints about the misleading telemarketing calls that initially posed as opinion polls but launched into nasty diatribes against a political opponent, mainly in tight U.S. congressional races.
On Wednesday, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon in a Kansas City press conference urged the state's General Assembly to pass legislation to protect residents from automated political calls by including them on the state's no-call list. Currently they are not covered by the no-call list.
Most so-called robo calls are recorded messages dispatched in the thousands by automated dialing machines. Some consumers reported receiving five to eight per night. Nixon said his office received more than 600 complaints about automated political calls in the weeks before the election.
"Missourians are frustrated that they can't stop these calls by being on the no-call list," said Nixon, who was accompanied by several state legislators, including state Rep. Ed Wildberger, of St. Joseph, who previously sponsored legislation that would deal with political calls.
In the past, telemarketing on behalf of political causes and opinion polling have been exempted from federal and state no-call laws, mainly because they are viewed as protected speech.
But critics, including polling companies, say the calls abuse their privileged status by misleading voters. The tactic, also called "push polling", is a form of negative campaigning disguised as a legitimate poll, according to the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
Instead of trying to measure opinion, they seek to change opinions and often distort information to influence voters, according to the association.
FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne-Farrell said the federal do-not-call law also exempts political robo calls and push polling.
Even so, rising complaints about automated calls prompted the FTC in October to announce a new rule, effective in January, that bars businesses from making unsolicited pre-recorded marketing calls to consumers without their prior express written permission. The rule does not apply to political calls.
A spokesperson for Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline said his office also received more complaints this year about political robo calls. But the spokesperson said Kansas law also does not restrict the automated calls. The spokesperson said Kansas law also makes it hard to even trace who made the calls.
But Nixon cited a new Minnesota law prohibiting automated political calls, which he said could serve as a model for a similar law in Missouri. The Minnesota law has been upheld by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Missouri.
Nixon said new legislation banning the automated political calls should be constructed to exclude legitimate automated calls that are not intended to mislead.
"There would be reasonable exemptions included if automated calls were covered," Nixon said. "These could include calls made in the context of an existing business relationship, calls from a school to a parent or calls from a doctor's office reminding a patient of an appointment," he said.
Nixon said the legislation could be part of larger proposed legislation that also would add cell phones and fax numbers to the no-call list. A similar proposal passed the Senate but died in the House this past year.
Some federal officials also want to clamp down on the irksome calls. The new Senate Democratic leadership said it will seek campaign reform that may include jail time for groups that, among other things, use robo calls to lie about opposing candidates. That could face constitutional hurdles, however.
Democrats accused the National Republican Congressional Committee of funding the robo calls. The committee denied any role in deceptive calls to voters, and said Democrats also used robo calls.
Officials said the worst cases involved close House district races. Robo calls were so heavy in the tight race in the 2nd District of Kansas that Nancy Boyda, the successful Democratic candidate, issued a statement on her Web site denying that a barrage of calls sent to her constituents came from her.
Boyda, who defeated Republican incumbent Jim Ryan, said her campaign used only one automated call. But she said wording in dozens of others misled voters to believe her campaign was disturbing their dinner hour. "In Congress I'll fight to end this kind of dirty politics," she said in a recorded message on her Web site.
Luallen might speak for many consumers in registering her disgust for the political tactic: "It's pretty sad when part of your criteria for an acceptable candidate is 'who was the least nasty?'"
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