Automated Campaign Calls Under Scrutiny

Todd Pittenger - Mon 03:44 PM 10/11/2010

As election day approaches, the Kansas Attorney General's Office is closely monitoring automated calls to ensure compliance with federal law.

As election day approaches, the Kansas Attorney General's Office is closely monitoring automated calls to ensure compliance with federal law.

Attorney General Steve Six's office issued a warning Monday. The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires all telephone calls using pre-recorded messages to identify who is initiating the calls and include a telephone number to reach them.

The Attorney General's Office received complaints against 13 candidate or political campaign committees prior to the August primary. To date, 3 of those complaints were found to not be a violation and 6 have led to settlement arrangements.

Although there is no state law restricting these automated, pre-recorded messages, the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires robo-calls to state clearly at the beginning of the call the identity of the party responsible for initiating the call.

The call also must include the telephone number of the party initiating the call so that the person receiving the call will have an opportunity to demand not to receive any further calls. The telephone number provided may not be a 900 number or any other number for which charges exceed local or long distance transmission charges. The Kansas Attorney General's Office is empowered to enforce the Act in Kansas. Violators of the Act may be subject to court-ordered injunctions and damages of up to $1500 per violation.

Earlier this year, the Kansas Robo-Call Privacy Act, introduced by Attorney General Six, was defeated in the Kansas Senate. The Robo-Call Privacy Act would have established a comprehensive restriction on unsolicited, intrusive robo-calls in Kansas.

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