As we know, political calls are exempt from the restrictions in the Do Not Call list.  There IS a site that will submit one's request to be put on the political parties' DNC list ( StopPoliticalCalls.org ), but some reports indicate only a few politicians' offices respect those requests.

So, in an attempt to decrease the number of political calls reaching my location, I set up an automatic responder in my PhoneTray application.  The known political caller receives a "disconnected" SIT tone, followed by a message, telling them to "wait", since they are caller number 9473 (or something like that), and "your call is important to us, and will be answered as soon as possible" (sound familiar?)

Use of the "disconnected" SIT tone supposedly "tells" the robocaller that the phone is ... err ... disconnected, and supposedly removes my number from their calling list.  The "please wait" is intended to slow down their calling frequency, so fewer folks may be bothered.

Anyway, the phone just rang, and PhoneTray indicated it was a known political call.  I waited a few seconds, and then listened in, to hear what was happening.  My automatic response was chugging along correctly, but the robocall was also "on automatic", and was blathering on about some political party.  Since both recordings were playing at the same time, it was difficult to understand ... but most political info these days may not be worth understanding, anyway   

I have noticed that local political parties seem also to be using volunteers to deliver "live" messages.  Most of those calls seem to be via cel phones (I have not checked against known VOIP or MagicJack numbers), and may be one-time calls.  I suspect the callers got my phone number from the voter registration information, since the calls are regarding the primary elections for the political party with which our family is registered.

Anybody else have suggestions how to reduce political calls, or how to handle political robocalls?

There is a political do-not-call registry here:  http://stoppoliticalcalls.org/index.php

Whether it works or not, I have no idea!  I am sure there are some people that will say that, like the regular DNC list, it just gives political organizations more numbers to call, but I have no idea.  They already call me anyway, so I think it would be worth a try. 

(BTW my numbers are on the regular DNC list. This way I automatically know any telemarketer who calls me is in violation of the list and therefore I would never do business with them.)

I've been on the political DNC since invention. How I handled it was to contact the party's directly and give them a DNC notice.  It stopped the calls until Newty ran for office. I went to his website directly to the contact page and sent a email and demanded they stop calling (he was blowing up my phone daily) and sent them the link for the PDNC list and told them to use it! Problem solved.   

Now if I can just get rid of all that spam snail mail these bozo's send!   

I prefer to go look at them on their websites and such, and make my decisions from there! Plus I can read about them on the local news as well.

Tami wrote:
Now if I can just get rid of all that spam snail mail these bozo's send!

I think I remember you mentioning that you used that material in your fireplace.  Just had a nasty thought about that ... the smoke may be poisonous!  The burning material will give off a lot of hot air (typical product of politicians), but the ink - particularly the red ink (of which politicians seem to be proud) may actually be injurious to one's health.

Hmmm.  My tongue is NOT firmly in my cheek when typing that!

Who knows, maybe that is related to your recent insomnia?

Slim wrote:... Anybody else have suggestions how to reduce political calls, or how to handle political robocalls?

I personally don't believe the StopPoliticalCalls list will work b/c politicians believe they are entitled to bother you at dinner time. They intentionally gave themselves a dispensation on the main DNC list, so why would they bother to look at a PDNC list? They have no incentive to observe it.

Before I started using PhoneTray, I used Verizon's blocking service, and was down to about one annoying call per month, except in election years. PhoneTray has eliminated all of the other calls, and I still use Verizon's service for their Anonymous Call Blocker (I prefer this to PTF, because there is no 1st ring).

For the StopPoliticalCalls list to work, there needs to be an enforceable penalty, but I don't believe we will ever see legislation for that.

I think it could but we have to pursue and push the issue with the politicians. But that goes along the same lines..  I can always vote for Mickey Mouse, Donald and Daffy Duck.. and I actually have,lol!  I have nominated my son and my husband for a few offices.  I'm a very independent person.  I don't take kindly to the annoying calls so tend to be pretty blunt.

I don't and won't do survey's nor give to charity's that phone spam and dun.  Pretty much all have stopped calling me. I get someplace between 1-4 calls a month and those are down to medical alert, the ol security call and the CCS.. Rarely I get microswisscheese calls and those I like to mess with those dud's heads. The rest didn't call for awhile, but I had used the whistle on them a few rounds. I think its about time to refresh their memory's on just what a old nasty person I can be.   


Slim, yeah I do use it in the file 13... Kinda goes hand in hand along with all those CC offers.. File 13 works pretty good.    Lets just say if really do have global warming, we can blame the politicians.. all that hot air is bound to have some backlash and eco effects along with the methane gas eruptions! You do know about the law where they have to eat beans up there right? Funniest dang thing I ever read but it sure explains that gas..