Maryland May Ban Political Robo-calls

Sounds good to me. After the terrible suppression techniques used by Republicans in Maryland in 2006, its time to end this practice. I was volunteer for the co-ordinated campaign, and when we would make our person to person calls, we received numerous complaints about robo-calls coming from Cardin and O'Malley. The thing is, most of these calls were not coming from Democrats, but from Republican political groups which started their calls with references to Maryland Democrats. When the voter hung up early, they had no way to hear the sponsor message at the end of the call.

This amounts to voter suppression through irritation. I can think of no other reason for the numerous, repeating robo-calls from Republicans other than to irritate Democratic voters and turn them off from their candidates.

I don't really see the inherent value of these calls over person to person calls, other than the fact that you need volunteers for person to person calls and all you need for weeks and weeks of robo-call irritation is a phone list and computer.

This would be similar to a Republican candidate finding a Democratic email list and sending hundreds of unsolicited emails to these addresses every day, in which the subject line declared the mail was from a Democratic candidate.

Now, perhaps there are regulations that don't go as far that could fix this problem. I think requiring disclosure of the calling organization at the start of the call would be great. Perhaps a required message for all calls that says "THIS IS AN AUTOMATED POLITICAL MESSAGE BROUGHT TO YOU BY '________' " I have a feeling that such a requirement would at least cut down on the number of calls and their effectiveness.

Paper Trail Bill Likely to Pass

Good news.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he plans to support a bill requiring that e-voting machines provide a paper trail, just months after opposing a similar measure.

Miller said he had opposed legislation filed earlier this year to require a paper trail of electronic votes because the bill was filed too close to last month's general election.

The senator said he had feared that local officials wouldn't have enough time to meet the requirements of the bill. With the next major election two years away, those officials should have plenty of time to ensure that e-voting machines provide a paper trail if such a law were enacted next year, he said.

Now just make sure you pass the damn thing, Mike.