I posted a query/rant along these lines about a month ago, but my NNTP
isn't talking to comp.dcom.telecom.
I know politicians exempted themselves from the federal telemarketing
law (and also the state law here in Texas). Are they completely and
totally exempt or do they have some restrictions also? Here's my
point ...
I don't belong to any political party. Texas has open primaries
(anyone can vote in either primary on election day). I haven't voted
in a primary in Texas because a) I almost always vote third-party and
b) the major party I hate the least had a presidential candidate from
Texas, so what was the point? Still, the Republican Party got a hold
of my name and number and call me continually begging for my vote.
About 75% of the the time I get a pre-recorded message from our
Republican governor or his wife asking I vote for this candidate or
that amendment. Every call except for one showed up in my caller ID
as "Unknown Name/Unknown Number". The one that did come through came
from the 248 area code which is Michigan, not Texas. When I get a
human I stop them and ask that a) I be removed from their list b) If
they continue to ignore my request I will vote against their candidate
automatically. They almost always argue that they have the right to
call me because they're exempt from the "Do Not Call" list.
They're totally missing the point!
I specifically requested not to receive telemarketing calls. Why
would they think I would welcome calls from them? If a candidate
stood up and said, "While I'm not legally obliged to do so, I will not
call people on the 'Do Not Call' list during my campaign", I would
strongly consider voting for that person. Having someone tell me "Oh,
sorry, no it's our RIGHT to call you and pester you at home twice a
day the week before an election!" is outrageous!
Here are my questions:
1.) Can politicians block their caller ID information? Regular
telemarketers can't.
2.) If I specifically request they not call, are the obliged to stop
calling?
I emailed the campaign of Rick Perry (our Republican governor) stating
that if I got one more call from his campaign I would vote against
him. The email bounced. And I continued getting calls. So
Gov. Perry ... you have lost my vote and you can never earn it back.
John Mayson
john@mayson.us