Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
The list that politicians, parties, vendors and candidates don't want you to know about.
With the election season now hitting us like a Hurricane, particularly in battle ground states, The National Political Do Not Contact Registry presents the top 11 ways to stop politicians, vendors candidates, unions, PACs, 527's, and local, state, and national party groups from contacting you at home either by phone or via the Internet.
The bottom line? With days to go until election day there is little that you can do now to stop John McCain, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Megan Fox, Jack Nicholson, Jay Z or some other celebrity from calling you at home.
However, there are some things you can do now that will help as well as preparing for the next election cycle as well as stopping commercial marketers from invading your privacy.
1) Registering to Vote --> Don't Do It, or Give The Minimum Information You Absolutely Need to Give
- When you register to vote DO NOT give the state your phone number. Leave it blank. Why? Because your state voter registration database, in most instances, is simply re-sold to the political establishment and that is the database that is used to contact you. ACTION: Re-register in your state and make sure that you remove your phone number(s) from the application.
- Political Party Affiliation. Don't have one. Do not register as part of a political party. I know, that can disqualify you from voting in the primaries. But, if you don't want a party to call you, don't tell them you support them.
2) Learn the Law --> Some states ban robo calls, do you live in one of them?
- Yes, there are states that ban robo calls and do not exempt political calls. If you live in one of them, know the law, how to file a complaint, and follow through on the complaint.
- California is the biggest state with a robo call ban. If you live in CA, robo calls are illegal according to the California Public Utilities Code sections 2871-2876. We have set up a specific web page to help CA residents file a complaint and to learn more about the law.
- Other states include: OR, IN, MN, NJ and SC.
- We also have a form for MN residents:
3) Do Not Call Registries --> Make sure you are on ALL of them
- While political calls are often exempt from do not call registries, there are several states that use the either the Federal Do Not Call List or a state do not call list to enforce robo call bans (Oregon for example). At the very least, make sure you are on the Federal Do Not Call Registry and your own State Do Not Call Registry (as applicable, some states do not have their own).
- Sign up at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry. The NPDNC is a non-profit non-partisan advocacy organization that is working with politicians and parties to demand that they not call voters that sign up at StopPoliticalCalls.org. Currently 6 politicians have signed a "do not robo call" pledge as well as a leading robo calling vendor.
4) Contributing and Volunteering for Candidates --> Don't, if you do not want to get unwanted contacts
- Bottom line? If you contribute or volunteer to a campaign or candidate and give them your phone number, email, and address you can expect to get non stop communications until election day.
- Opt-Out of Email: Most campaigns will allow you to quickly opt-out of email communications. It is much more difficult to get them to remove your phone numbers and mailing addresses. Visit their campaign websites to find out how to do so.
5) Tell the Campaigns To Stop Calling! --> In person, often, and via the phone
- In person communication works. Do it. Now.
- If you do not like getting unwanted phone calls from campaigns, tell them!
- Tell campaigns that you will not vote for the candidate if they do not stop calling
- Tell campaigns that you will not contribute if they do not stop calling
- Tell campaigns that you will write letters to the editor and tell all your friends not to vote for that candidate if they do not stop calling
- Make sure, again, that you know your state laws about political calls and demand that the enforcing authorities actually do their job --> Enforcing the existing laws!
6) Think Having a Cell Phone Exempts You From Getting Called? Think Again. --> Make sure that you never give campaigns your number(s).
- If you think that the law regulates political calls to cell phones, you are wrong. Period.
- If a campaign gets hold of your cell phone number (your voter registration, your contribution form, your volunteer application, etc..) they can call you on your cell phone anytime, anywhere, anyhow.
- Just because commercial organizations are banned from calling cell phones doesn't mean that politicians are. Remember, politicians are exempt from most do not call registries. Just because you have a cell phone doesn't mean that pols won't call you.
7) Unlist Your Number(s) With Your Phone Company
- Yes, it costs a little extra. It is worth it. Unlist your number from the phone directory by calling your local phone provider and doing it now. Not only will it stop your ex-spouse from finding you, it will make it harder for politicians to find you as well.
8) Make Sure Google Unlists Your Number
- Few people realize that Google could have your phone number, name and address. Fewer people realize that Google makes it easy to unlist it for free. Click here to do so.
9) Consumer Marketing Do Not XYZ Lists. --> Join them now.
- The Direct Marketing Association has a website that lists the following services. We recommend that you sign up for all of them. NOTE: Some cost money.
- How to remove your name from mailing lists.
- How to get your name off telemarketing lists.
- How to get your name off email lists.
- How to remove deceased individuals names from marketing lists.
- How to remove the names of individuals in your care from marketing lists.
- The Mail Preference Service
- Credit Card Offers. The CC industry has a credit card offer opt out service at:
10) Get Caller ID --> You'll know if it is Grandma Calling, but You'll still be woken up at 3 AM
- Again, this service often costs a little extra. It is worth it so that when you see a number that you do not recognize on your Caller ID screen you can make the choice not to answer it.
- It does not help, however, with stopping the phone from actually ringing and waking you and your family up.
11) Internet Advertising Op-Out Services --> If you do not want to be micro-targeted by the campaigns, do not let them know who you are and where you are when you are online.
- Network Advertising Initiative opt out (NAI opt out). Click here to learn more and take action.
11 1/2) Educate Yourself --> AARP and Google have teamed up to create a great site full of useful content to learn about everything you need to know about protecting yourself online.
- You can click here to link directly to the Google's Privacy Channel. At the site you'll learn all about the following through easy to view YouTube video:
- Search Privacy
- Firewalls
- Password protection
- Unlisting phone numbers
- Cookies
We are sure that there are other ways to stop unwanted political communications. Please let us know in the comment section and we'll be sure to update the list as we learn of more options.
Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
