Political do-not-call registry in works

Published 11:05 pm Thursday, August 9, 2007

PITTSBURGH – Many people who register with do-not-call lists to block telemarketing calls are dismayed to learn that charities, survey takers and politicians can continue to disturb them.

Those groups won exemptions under state and federal laws because they technically aren’t calling to sell anything. In the case of politicians, rulemakers also determined that banning those calls would violate rights of free speech.

But relief may be on the way. The nonprofit Citizens for Civil Discourse plans to launch a political do-not-call registry in September.

Of the 146 million phone numbers on the national do-not-call registry, “My hypothesis is that the vast majority would also like politicians to be included,” said Shaun Dakin, the group’s founder. “Most people are pretty angry when they find out politicians can call at will.”

Complying with the registry would be voluntary, but Dakin believes that if he can get enough people to sign up, most politicians would honor the list, not wanting to anger voters by continuing to pester them.

Right now, people can visit the group’s Web site to get on a pre-launch list to be contacted when the registry goes live.

Instead of requesting that all political calls stop, registrants will be able to specify how and when they want to be contacted, such as only during certain hours or only by e-mail.

Registration will be free, but Dakin plans to charge politicians to get the list, just as telemarketers pay for state and federal do-not-call lists. Any profits will go to a charitable cause, he said.

People who want to limit calls from charities and other exempt groups not covered by Dakin’s effort can do so on a call-by-call basis, said Mitchell Katz, a spokesman at the Federal Trade Commission, which runs the national telemarketing registry, www.donotcall.gov.

Companies are required to maintain internal lists of consumers who don’t want to be called, he said.

“If you ask them to put you on their company-specific do-not-call registry, they should do that and not call you again,” he said.

Because so many people find prerecorded sales pitches bothersome, the FTC has proposed an amendment to the Telemarketing Sales Rule that would prohibit prerecorded messages without a consumer’s consent – but again, politicians would be exempt.