According to this press release by the Indiana AG this morning, heads of the major Indiana political parties have vowed to make a “reasonable best effort to not support or encourage the use of auto-dialed ‘robo-calls’ by this year’s election candidates at the federal or state levels.” Passed in 1998, the Indiana Auto Dialer Law forbids the use of robo-calls by business, while leaving an exception for political campaigns. Today’s agreement seems to close the door to this exception.
Though this document is not legally binding, each leader promises not to encourage the use of such technology, and therefore eliminates the incentive to gain an unfair advantage by doing so.
On a personal level, I question the effectiveness of such annoying calls. Is calling an enormous number of people using a robot voice really an “advantage” in political campaigns. I, personally, would be tempted to vote against a candidate simply because this disturbing voice interrupted me in the middle of dinner.