Will Candidates Dare Robocall in Indiana?

Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org

Many people do not know that Indiana has one of the strictest robo call laws in the USA.   Essentially no one can use an "autodialer" to make a phone call to a resident of Indiana.

Full Stop.

Indiana’s “Automatic Dialing Machine” statute [IC 24-5-14-5] specifically states:

Sec. 5. (b) A caller may not use or connect to a telephone line an automatic dialing-announcing device unless:

(1) the subscriber has knowingly or voluntarily requested, consented to, permitted, or authorized receipt of the message; or
(2) the message is immediately preceded by a live operator who obtains the subscriber's consent before the message is delivered.

Up until recently, the Attorney General of IN, Steve Carter, has taken every opportunity to file cases against those companies that have violated the law.

In fact: 

Last September, Carter prevailed in a federal lawsuit challenging the enforcement of the automated dialing statute against political calls by FreeEats.

Carter filed a lawsuit in September, 2006 against AFV and had sought an injunction after receiving complaints about automated calls being made by the organization that did not provide the required live operator to obtain the recipient’s permission to play the pre-recorded message. AFV is one of nine companies the state has filed suit against or reached a court-ordered agreement with for alleged violations of federal or state statutes regulating automated and pre-recorded calls since 2004.

However, on February 15th of this year:

Indiana's autodialer law has been given a serious blow with a ruling by Orange Circuit Judge Larry Blanton in Harrison County. Blanton has ruled that Indiana's autodialer law does not apply to political messages. Judge Blanton says a political message delivered during a political campaign is not the selling of a tangible product, and therefore, the law does not apply.

So, the question is, will Political campaigns go ahead and make robo calls in Indiana ahead of the primary?

If so, who is advantaged by being able to do them?

I have some sources that tell me that Obama has been making more robocalls overall than Hillary and that she has been working on making volunteer phone calls more and more a part of her campaign.

In an email exchange today, however, with the office of the AG I was told the following:

There is not an injunction or Stay in place at this point while the Harrison County Case is on appeal.  The Attorney General will continue to enforce the Automated Dialing Statute consistent with our approach in the past.

If anyone gets a robocall in Indiana, please feel free to let me know via email.

Shaun Dakin
CEO
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry

Comments

[Jacob]

I'm working with the Obama campaign out of fort wayne, and I can tell you that we haven't authorized any robocalling in the state. I should know because I've been on the phones for what seems like 10 hours a day. I do know however, that we have gotten a number of tip offs saying that african american voters in the area were being robocalled, with the assumption that it was a hillary-associated group behind them. I don't want to play a game of polemics here, it doesn't matter who the candidate is, this kind of activity is completely unfounded and dirty.