Group launches voluntary

effort to curtail political calls
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

With a congressional bill creating a do-not-call registry for political calls making its second attempt at passage, a private non-profit effort is creating a voluntary version with the same intent.

A bill submitted by U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-5) would allow people to stop automated political calls from reaching their telephones by adding such calls to the existing list of prohibited calls. The national Do Not Call Registry was launched in 2003, but didn’t include several categories of calls, including political campaign calls.

Shaun Dakin, CEO and founder of StopPoliticalCalls.org, launched a campaign in October to create a voluntary registry in hopes that politicians would eventually be forced by the weight of public opinion to either enact the legislation or else risk the wrath of voters who didn’t want unsolicited phone calls.

Dakin, based in Washington, D.C., has launched the non-profit National Political Do Not Contact Registry to address what he said was a failure of politicians to police themselves.

The organization is voluntary and has no regulatory authority, but Dakin, who himself has been active in political campaigns, said politicians would pay attention if the numbers were significant enough.

“Politicians care about money and they care about votes,” Dakin said. “These voters are ticked off and are essentially saying they’re not going to vote for anyone who calls them. Politicians want to save their own skin, so if they think they’re losing votes, they won’t call.

“They can also save money because they know not to contact these people and can place their limited resources elsewhere.”

Dakin said politicians had told him off the record that they would honor the registry if it built to a noticeable and influential level. They would have access to the information, though Dakin said his organization was highly protective of it and the list wouldn’t be circulated to other third parties.

Dakin cited surveys that suggest most people didn’t realize politicians exempted themselves from the national Do Not Call registry when the legislation was enacted, ostensibly because of First Amendment concerns giving extra protection to political speech.

Dakin believes that defense is hollow but said if enough voters were angered, politicians would have to listen, whether informally or through regulation.

“If they don’t participate, the court of public opinion will render the decision for them,” Dakin said. “This wouldn’t be an issue if politicians would do the right thing, but they won’t until it makes the difference between winning and losing an election.”

Americans have registered nearly 150 million phone numbers with the Do Not Call Registry, but researchers found three out of four people didn’t know that political calls are exempt. In the final weeks of the 2006 election, according to one survey, 64 percent of voters received recorded messages, and approximately 40 percent received between three and nine automated phone calls during the campaign “I started the registry to improve the quality of life for the average American during the election season,” Dakin said.

“Many voters consider their homes to be a sanctuary and therefore consider calls from politicians and political groups to be invasive. That experience alone can turn people off from the entire electoral process. If the NPDNC can help significantly reduce political calls during the 2008 election, we will have delivered a significant win for the American family and for our political system overall.”

The voluntary service is free and signup is at www.StopPoliticalCalls.org. The organization will then notify political campaigns of the registrant’s preferences.

The organization is asking the candidates to take a “Do Not Contact” pledge and promise not to call the numbers listed on the registry.

Dakin said his ultimate goal is to improve civil discourse between the public and politicians.

He acknowledged the effort would have to be extremely successful to influence national races, but he said state and local races might have enough participating voters to give politicians pause before they punched up a recorded message.