Is your home plagued with campaign robocalls?
Shot by Dan
They are coming from all political directions: the campaigns of Tim Kaine and George Allen, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. the Virginia Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, the Democratic National Committee., They’re also coming from independent outfits like Crossroads GPS (a Karl Rove group) and polling companies like Rassmussen Reports and Independent Voter Research.
In the past hour alone, I’ve had four of these damn political robocalls.
I’ll be writing a column about these, and if you feel as hassled by them as I do, I want to hear from you.
Drop me an email at dan(dot)casey(at)roanoke(dot)com. Tell me:
- How often you’re getting these calls;
- When they’re coming in;
- Is it only on your landline, or are they calling your cell phone too?
- And give me a phone number where I can reach you during the day.
September 27, 2012 - 3:30 PM
YES. I get probably 8 a night. I don’t answer them. One of them even says on caller ID…”Don’t Answer”. At least they have a sense of humor. Just my landline.
No, we have a pretty good spam filter on our phone. But, speaking of unsolicited stuff, my neighbor, with two “no trespassing” signs prominently displayed in his yard, got your Roanoke Times ad paper the other day, right in his driveway.
Strange. I think we’ve gotten one robocall. Total.
#2 Your neighbor could blast the ad with his arsenal of death-dealing arms. Or he could borrow your. That would be cool.
I’ve gotten 6 or 7 calls. Mostly on my work phone. I don’t have a land line for my house, but I have received a couple on my cell phone. I always take the time and identify myself as an independent voter supporting Romney. Can’t figure out why Romney is behind in the polls…
Someone suggested “no trespassing” signs the other day. Seems they do no good against the indifferent Roanoke Times.
Now the suggestion is just to use the ads for target practice.
At what point does it become a legitimate tort?
Very few calls here, maybe 3-4 polling calls. Nothing more.
The only calls we get in NYS are for Congress or our State Assembly. It appears both parties have made assumptions regarding NYS and the Presidential race.
Jack, did you send your registered letter?
Yes at least 5 a day as late as 10pm….I just wish I could get a real person on the phone when It’s from a republican affiliated group, so I could tell them how I feel about them. Something tells me they wouldn’t bother calling me anymore after that.
I got so many calls one year that I called the headquarters of the political party that was making the calls and told them that because they had harassed my family so much I was voting for the other party. I did not receive another call from them.
@Dan,
Probably sending it tomorrow. With the signs, though, a letter would be unnecessary.
I was out of town all last week and getting a few more addresses this week.
I get several a week, only on my landline and often they are repeats.
We just got one from American Future Fund I think the right is getting worried! LOL
I could have sworn I saw Dan-O (now known as Fraud-O), Sandi, Kristen, G-dud, etc in that video in Cleveland getting their “Obama Phone” LOL….Class acts! The future leaders of our Socialist Nation!
I get several every day. Usually three or four. Many are polls. I finally answered one, with the hope that they would then stop calling. Instead, the next night, I got two from the same folks. Maddening. I did get one from a real person one time and, I feel badly, but I told her it was none of her damned business who I was voting for; we have the right to a secret ballot in this country.
Dan. I forwarded my land line to my new cell phone which tells me the state calls are from or if call his restricted. If not a 540 or number I know I no longer answer. They are either oil and gas well salesmen or political calls. Getting at least ten or mor
e a day.
A few robos. Never a call from a polling agency. Nor has anyone in my klatsch. Meanwhile, as I have mentioned before, I once overheard a rather zaftig welfare momma comment how many times the “pollin’ people” had been calling her.
Sounds like liberals like Dan and Kristen have the same experience as the woman. Democrats get polled. Republicans, not so much. Is it any wonder these things are skewed?
They start at 9 am and continue til about 9 pm. It can be 5-6 a day, only on the landline, not the cellphone. Sometimes I just start punching numbers on the dial for the hell of it to let off steam. I’ve thought of having my phone temporarily disconnected til after 11/6.
We get 4-5 a day on our landline and I have gotten a couple on my cell (actually they were polls and were living people on the other end). I’ve gotten a couple each night the past few days solicting donations for Romney to prevent the “Socialist takeover of our country”. I pressed “1″ to indicate I would make a donation. This sent me to a live person who didn’t seem to understand when I said my donation was going to Obama.
#17 “Democrats get polled. Republicans, not so much”
Yeah, that would explain why us two Dems have gotten one call.
#14 Sorry, DD, never been to Cleveland itself.
We get upwards of 5 a night. Probably b/c my spouse always says the ticket will be Democrat all the way. Funny! Wonder if we told them how we really vote they would stop calling.
Suzie, if its anymore bizarre, Dan is polled as a black woman.
The only person in my house to answer one of those calls is voting for Romney. I’m yanking that house phone as soon as #2 leaves for college…all it attracts is spam phone calls. My cell – never.
#17 “Democrats get polled. Republicans, not so much”
Yeah, that would explain why us two Dems have gotten one call.
That’s two more than anybody from our Republican klatsch combined have gotten. Thanks for proving my point, genius.
We dumped our landline in 2005 and haven’t had one since. No calls as a result. We do get a few at work during the day though, and they are promptly hung up. A couple times I’ve been working over the weekend I’ve gone through the polls, just for the heck of it, but that’s it.
I’ve had several. I usually hang up (or do not answer). Caller ID shows most as Private Caller, therefore unable to tell where they come from. Politiciams excluded themselves from the law, as they do with several things (social security, Obamacare). We should be able to block them.
#26 Hey, genius, I said we’ve gotten one robocall. You said you’ve gotten several. God are you dimwitted.
Suzie, members of the Tea Party aren’t polled because the government already has your names, has camera’s on your homes, bugged your phones, your emails, your keystrokes on your computers, and knows all about your every move.
I know for a fact that volunteers, donors and people who have ever contacted a campaign are on the call lists so that says a lot about some of you claiming never to get called. And FYI, Robocalls from candidates and campaigns are not the same thing as polls.
@31, going beyond that I know for a fact that if you VOTED you are on the call list and depending which election you voted in (ie, general, local, primary) you are tagged as a probable R or D or I.
Fox News’ polls mirror CNN, NBC, NYT. It must be a left wing conspiracy.
Excellent addition Dawn, that is true as well. Thanks.
#31 Sandi, I’ve never volunteered or called a campaign, although I have contributed a small amount once or twice. I ALWAYS vote. And our two calls this year have been robocalls, not polls. I think we might have been polled once in 2008.
Re: Comment by Richard J Beason, CPA — September 28, 2012 @ 12:54 pm
Good one!
Now you owe me a new keyboard.
.
Re: That’s two more than anybody from our Republican klatsch combined have gotten.
—————-
I know that in the past you have claimed to never attended / belonged / contributed / etc to the TP — or something like that.
Have you ever been a poll worker, been a election observer, volunteered for or contributed to a political organization, etc? For / to any advocacy group? Service organization? Lobbied? Done anything of significance in the political process?
Bitching to a small kaffee klatsch doesn’t count as significant, BTW.
These guys are the worst. IDK their purpose, but they call at least once per week. They called just a few minutes ago.
http://ivn.us/2012/09/11/the-mystery-of-independent-voter-research/
Gdad, the NRA called work this morning offering a “quick update” and I have fielded the polling and robo calls every national election so I cannot tell you why you have not had more.
I have had the same phone number for 32 years. I emailed John McCain (before he was even a candidate for Pres) and I have received the GOP robo calls (and emails) ever since. I worked on the Bedford County Dem Committee years ago too. I volunteered for Obama in 2008…oddly enough making calls! They are most certainly not all Dems I can assure you of that too.
It could be that some zip codes are a given for all I know. From what I understand the push-polls and robo calls like the one I linked to are maybe part of the back door info campaigns receive. I know that at least one national poll has called me, but it was months ago, even before the primary was over. They are the rarer calls and I do not think they ever call over and over.
They say jury duty is about registered voters and the DMV, but plenty of people never get called and some have more than twice.
This is just my opinion, but the national polls do not use the voter roles as far as I have ever found. Anyone know if they can buy the nitty gritty census info? Demographics would be their goal IMO. It would be interesting to know, but they don’t volunteer a lot for obvious reasons.
Same questions on the Labor Dept and the surveys they speak of. Ever heard anyone say they were contacted? I never have been that I recall. And they supposedly to track the same sample set for some time.
It is a mystery, but if the polls are far from the vote, this could get ugly.