I hate robo calls. If you're going to call and solicit my vote at least have a real person on the line so I can ask questions. Nonetheless many candidates use this tool. The Berks County Democratic Committee even paid for robo calls supporting State Representative Dante Santoni Jr. last year. It's taken some digging but I finally found the firm hired to do those. Interestingly the expense for that was never reported to County Committee people and whoever paid for them has never been revealed, even in state campaign finance reports.
A new group, formed by Shaun Dakin, called Citizens For Civil Discourse, is establishing a Do Not Call Registry fo these phone calls. You might think this already exists and that you're signed up for the do not call registries. Unfortunately for all of us the politicians exempted themselves from that program. This new group is trying to create one to close that loophole. Read more about it here.
Having worked and volunteered on campaigns I understand the importance of direct voter contact ( a method alien to local Berks County campaigns) in assembling a data base for an effective get out the vote strategy on election day. However too many candidates abuse the process. People are still groaning every time their home phone rings afraid it's the Lois Murphy campaign calling again. Those people so abused the phone lines many Democrats are no longer willing to even volunteer for anyone much less give anyone their phone numbers.
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