Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
Advocacy Group Investigating Un-enforced Law in South Carolina Banning Robocalls
Washington, D.C. – Monday, September 22, 2008 – The National Political Do Not Contact Registry (NPDNC), the nation’s only political do not call advocacy group located at StopPoliticalCalls.org, today announced it is investigating a South Carolina law that bans robocalls. The NPDNC will move to demand that the South Carolina Attorney General as well as the SC Department of Consumer Affairs enforce the existing law: SECTION 16-17-446. Regulation of automatically dialed announcing device (ADAD). The law bans all robo calls in the state of South Carolina specifically, “ADAD calls include automatically announced calls of a political nature including, but not limited to, calls relating to political campaigns.”
To our knowledge the enforcing authorities have not enforced this law, allowing political campaigns the freedom to invade the privacy of all SC voters. With the support of South Carolina voters who are willing to make an official complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Attorney General, the NPDNC registry hopes to be able to shut down robocalls in South Carolina in time for this November’s election.
“We hope to bring the first legitimate complaint under Section 16-17-446 and stop robocalls in South Carolina in time for the election this November,” said Shaun Dakin, founder and CEO of the NPDNC Registry. “It is time that South Carolina voters are able to protect their privacy. Robocalls in the state are illegal, but we believe that the law has been un-enforced to date. In fact, during the most recent primaries South Carolina voters were inundated with millions of robocalls from both McCain and Obama as well as state and local candidates.”
SECTION 16-17-446. Regulation of automatically dialed announcing device (ADAD) clearly prohibits any form of auto-dialer calls or robocalls being made in South Carolina. Robo calls include automatically announced calls of a political nature including, but not limited to, calls relating to political campaigns.
The NPDNC is the nation’s first non-profit group that is working to bring back voter phone privacy during the election season. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project <http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/197/report_display.asp> 81 percent of Iowa voters in the presidential caucuses received robocalls. Also, according to Pew, robocalls are now the top form of Congressional communication.
The NPDNC has already received over one thousand of complaints by South Carolina voters who have been robo-called in their homes this year. As CEO Shaun Dakin testified in the U.S. Senate this past February in support of the Robocall Privacy Act, voters complain that they are sick and tired of having their privacy invaded by politicians who seem to have no regard for their constituent’s quality of life. For example, senior citizens have told the NPDNC that they live in fear of having a health emergency occur while being on the receiving end of anywhere from 10 to 15 robocalls a day during an election season; many stay-at-home mothers have said that they are tired of having their infants woken up by the calls during the must-have naps in the afternoon; and night shift workers have commented that they are dead tired at work after being unable to get a full nights’ sleep during the day as politicians call them at home all day long.
The NPDNC has consulted with several South Carolina legal organizations to ensure that the complaints brought to the SC Attorney General and the Department of Consumer Affairs are relevant, valid and timely.
“With the 2008 presidential election garnering more attention than elections in the recent past, it is a sure bet that campaigns will turn to robocalls as a way to get their message out, particularly in South Carolina,” said Dakin. “While we have a base of voters that have registered their number for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org to start with, if other South Carolina voters want to join the registry, we will be happy to hear from them and will include them in the complaint.”
For South Carolina residents interested in joining the NPDNC’s complaint they should:
- Go to the NPDNC website at www.StopPoliticalCalls.org and register their phone number for free.
- After activating their account, they should return to the home page and click on Action Center --> Report Unwanted Political Calls --> South Carolina robo call form and fill out the requested information. Alternatively, the voter can go directly to www.StopIllegalSCRobocalls.org
The questions include the following and should take no more than 1 minute to complete:
- Who called you?
- What day and time was the call?
- What is your contact information?
The NPDNC will make a public announcement once the first complaint is filed.
“We hope to put a robo-hold on all South Carolina campaign robocalls this fall,” said Dakin. “Campaigns at levels – local, state, and federal - will be calling at their own peril if they continue to ignore the law.”
The full code can be found at: http://www.scstatehouse.net/code/t16c017.htm
About the National Political Do Not Contact Registry
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry is a program of Citizens for Civil Discourse (CCD), non-partisan, non-profit organization (federal 501(c)(3) status pending) dedicated to elevating political discussion in the United States. CCD is based on the premise that the decline of civility in American political dialogue has diminished our nation’s capacity to address urgent problems. Founder and CEO Shaun Dakin believes that citizen action is required to restore decency, respect and common sense to public debate in this country. Unfortunately, political robo calls do not have a place in political discourse. Robo calls invade our privacy and you simply cannot have a two-way discussion with a robot.
Since launching in October 2007, the NPNDC registry has registered over 50,000 concerned voters nationwide and approximately 3 million voters have already received relief from Candidates that have taken the “do not robo call” pledge. Rep. Virginia Fox (R-NC) and Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) were among the first candidates to join the registry. Democratic Dialing, a leading robo call vendor, has also joined the Registry by agreeing to scrub voter phone lists against the NPDNC registry database. CEO Shaun Dakin has testified at the U.S. Senate as the only representative of ordinary American voters at the national level. Learn more at www.StopPoliticalCalls.org
Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
