Campaign Robocalls Disrupt Comcast Service

As elections close, campaigns tend to spend their dwindling resources on the activities that reach the most voters for the least amount of money. More often than not, that means an explosion of robocalls -- automated phone messages that can blanket a district for a drop-in-the-bucket price.

News reports about robocalls have been surprisingly sparse this cycle, at least compared to 2008. But that doesn't mean they aren't taking place. Readers have emailed in to say they've been blanketed by campaigns, committees, and various political organizations (please, email audio!). And on Monday, the telecommunications giant Comcast was forced to put out a statement apologizing to users in New England states for disrupted service. Robocalls, it appears, were clogging up the telephone lines.

"Comcast - and, we believe, other local phone carriers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts - are experiencing severe call volumes on the evening before the election due to auto dialing activity that is generating a massive number of inbound political phone calls to our network," the statement read. "As soon as we were made aware of the congestion this was causing, we began to re-route traffic around it. At the same time, we are working hard to identify the carrier that owns the originating telephone numbers generating these unusual traffic volumes in an attempt to address the situation."

The irony of it all is that robocalls seem to repel as many voters are they persuade, with recipients genuinely frustrated at the prospect of their lives being interrupted every hour by some automated voice. And while politicians often decry the use of the tactic (certainly when being targeted) more frequently they're using the public backlash to robocalls for political advantage. As reported on Monday by local Topeka, Kansas station WIBW:

The Kansas Democratic Party said a Republican organization it hasn't identified made automated calls telling voters to bring a voter registration card and proof of home ownership with them when they vote Tuesday.

Those items are not required.

"There is no place for voter intimidation in our electoral process," said Kansas Democratic Party Chairman Larry Gates. "Every Kansas voter should feel comfortable with their right to cast a ballot and understand tactics like these are lies meant to scare them away from exercising that right."

Comments

[Marie Russell-Barker]

01:38 PM on 11/02/2010

It is really a shame to have people that are trying to prevent other from exercising there civic right by intimidating.

As our VP said This ain't your Fathers Republicans these are people who believes in violence they stick with their Bibles and guns.

They want to take everybody's rights away but theirs, they want to set the Country backward. These are not reasonable people.

Or dividing us as citizens we want to keep the Social programs that we now have and work on building it up getting rid of some of the Loop Holds that are in out government today.
we want to grow as a Country together as a whole.

We want jobs, Health Care, Medicare, Medicaid, good schools K-10 grades, Collage made affordable, We are for a more smarter American (From what have been seeing going on this Mid-Turn Elections we need it). We want a more efficient Government as well as a good budget. We all so want to pay down our National Dept.

What we want most of all is peace and prosperity. We are the People of these United States.

[WykydRed]

12:18 PM on 11/02/2010

I wonder what would come of it if a mere 100 million people called the ACLU and started a HUGE lawsuit?.....

[hopeisalive]

12:17 PM on 11/02/2010

Kansas Republicans probably got their cue from that Master of "Dirty Tricks", Karl Rove. Another manipulator of things like this is on trial now in Texas, Mr. DeLay----maximum term, if convicted, is life. Wouldn't that be something!

[Countess]

09:55 AM on 11/02/2010

For profit elections being fought by for profit politicians sponsored by for profit corporate interests investing billions of dollars to buy the government that will help them make even more money.

[Gibbon2010]

09:36 AM on 11/02/2010

Capitalism and greed run amok. Welcome to USA 2010.

[kfreed]

09:00 AM on 11/02/2010

"The Kansas Democratic Party said a Republican organization it hasn't identified made automated calls telling voters to bring a voter registration card and proof of home ownership with them when they vote Tuesday."

oh, and a credit card... for the poll tax.

[jeanwny]

08:51 AM on 11/02/2010

Darn good thing "robo calling" is cheap, cause no need in this day and age to answer these incredibly annoying calls!!!

[juliebird]

08:50 AM on 11/02/2010

I wonder, in this age of caller id, how many people refuse to answer robocalls and pollster calls, and therefore skew the poll results?
I know I've slammed down the receiver on McMahon pollster a time or 2.

[cybersense]

08:55 AM on 11/02/2010

the phone calls are terrible when you get a machine. I have hung up on all of them. Annoying. Although I am more likely to talk or listen to a real voice. Still, you do feel like you are not sure if you should answer the phone.

[IHateTheGOP]

08:47 AM on 11/02/2010

Republican organization made automated calls telling voters to bring a voter registration card and proof of home ownership with them when they vote Tuesday. Those items are not required.

Voter intimidation - The GOP can NEVER, EVER, EVER play fair. Otherwise, they would NEVER win an election.

[StevieRae]

08:45 AM on 11/02/2010

Hmmm. another case for doing away with Comcast's cable telephone and "sticking" with the mobile.

[Gibbon2010]

09:42 AM on 11/02/2010

Those automated call bastards are slowly seeping into the cell phone world. The US should be opt-in and not opt-out. If the public had a choice, I'd guess 99.99% want automated calls of any type stopped.

[cyoohoos]

08:41 AM on 11/02/2010

I'm glad I don't have a land line. Not one robo call this year. Woot!!!

[cybersense]

09:48 AM on 11/02/2010

they don't stop at land lines - cell phones numbers are being used to.

[Carachama]

08:39 AM on 11/02/2010

My favorite was a call for family court judge from the guy that pretty much states that he will judge based on the Bible. He hated making the robocall and sounded so weak that anyone that might have listened to more than 5 seconds of the call would probably vote against him. When he handed me a bag at a local fair, I turned it inside out - no sense wasting plastic.

[IHateTheGOP]

08:48 AM on 11/02/2010

Yea, you could use it to clean up after your dog.

[Ralf The Dog]

04:19 PM on 11/02/2010

As a person who thinks he is a talking dog, I find your comment offensive.

:)

[Morganster]

08:27 AM on 11/02/2010

There definitely should be a law to end this unmitigated harassment from politicians.

When Mike Bloomberg was running for Mayor in New York, I logged a total of 22 calls from his campaign in 2 weeks!

My elderly next door neighbor was subjected to the same harassment to the point that she finally collapsed in tears. She was afraid to turn her telephone off, because she is in poor health and could not afford to be without communication.

Needless to say, neither of us voted for Bloomberg.

Robocalls?? STOP THE INSANITY!!!

[way2sunny]

08:38 AM on 11/02/2010

Get rid of the landline.

[cyoohoos]

08:44 AM on 11/02/2010

I dropped my land line and I love it. Woot!!

[ramal]

08:11 AM on 11/02/2010

It has gone beyond ridiculous. I have received at least five robo-calls a day for the last two weeks. There ought to be a law.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

08:05 AM on 11/02/2010

The call I received was from a local politician, and at least I had the opportunity (after holding) to leave a message for him. I told him in no uncertain terms what he could do with his unsolicited call to my unlisted number. I told him that, if I had been a member of his party and I had been planning to vote for him, his call would have changed my mind.