Massachusetts Senate Race: Somebody Stop the Robocallers!

I don’t understand how lobbyists think that disturbing people with dozens of automated phone calls on a public holiday is going to encourage them to go out and vote. When you’re working at the computer, keeping control of three dishes on the stove, trying to relax and read the paper or corralling your children who are off from school for the day, the last thing you want to do is get up and answer the phone for an impersonal message. After three or four of these incidences, you start getting frustrated, and after a dozen it’s tempting to leave the phone off the hook for the rest of the day. In our house, nobody’s answering the phone, so if you really need to get ahold of us, call our cell phones or send an email.

We’ve had the doctors calling to tell us to vote for Scott Brown so he can block the health care bill. The Democrats are calling with pleas to vote for Coakley so she can send it through. Ted Kennedy’s widow called with an entreaty to keep her husband’s seat firmly in Democratic hands. A friend said that Pat Boone called him (an automated message of course) to ask for votes in Scott Brown’s court.

I find these messages insulting and annoying. I wasn’t planning on voting, but now I’m thinking about going out and voting for Joe Kennedy – the race’s third party candidate.