Campaign Calls Keep Coming

Monday, November 6th 2006, 10:40 am

By: News On 6

Itâ€™s something that many of us have had to deal with; those campaign calls just keep coming. Some viewers tell us they're swamped with calls from candidates, and people on the â€œDo Not Callâ€ list wonder why theyâ€™re getting these calls.

Itâ€™s because political calls are exempt from the regulations.

As for the number of calls, News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says it's because computers do the work, and that makes it harder on the people trying to do election polling.

This weekend the President was calling Oklahomans. "This is President George W. Bush. Tuesday November 7th is Election Day and our Republican candidates need your vote," said one campaign call.

And the candidates, who have saturated television with attacks and counterattacks, are now doing it by phone. "This is Jari Askins, I'm calling to ask for your vote for Lt. Gov. on Tuesday. I wouldn't trouble you with this call if my opponent was being honest, but he's not," a call from the Askins campaign said.

All those phone calls come from computers, and they make it hard on Bill Shapard who does election polling by phone.

Shapard conducts the Oklahoma Poll for The News on 6. He says all those computerized calls make it harder on pollsters. "And polling is a very worthwhile civic activity that everyone should take part in just as they do voting on Election Day," said Shapard.

But with some people getting 20, 30 or more calls like this, "Hello I'm Dennis Weese and I'm your candidate for Senate District 36." "This is Senator Jim Inhofe, I'm calling to ask you to support Jess Guardiola." It was one caller who delivered some good news, "This is Laura Bush and Election Day is almost here."

The Do Not Call Registry doesn't apply to political calls because those calls are exempt; remember it was politicians who wrote the laws that cover the list. It also doesn't affect polling calls since it's not a sales call.