There's another push to outlaw robocalls in our state.
The automated computer-generated calls are more common in political campaigns, because technology allows the robocalls to be made pretty inexpensively. State Representative Spencer Black (D-Madison) points to an incident involving robocalls in last week's election in New York.
"In New York people were awakened at 2am in the morning because a computer was misprogrammed. Obviously if these calls were made by a person as my bill would require, that person would not be calling at 2am, but a computer can make mistakes."
The Madison Democrat says the deceptive and harassing use of robocalls could happen in Wisconsin, that's why he says lawmakers need to pass legislation ( AB-311 , SB-172 ) banning such calls before next year's election. Black says in some areas of active elections, people get as many as 30 intrusive robocalls a day … annoying taxpayers and even blocking important personal calls.
"We had one incident in Wisconsin where a person up in Appleton missed his own brother's funeral because there were so many calls on his answering machine he did not receive calls informing him of the death of his brother and the date of the funeral, so he missed his own brother's funeral."
Black says candidates have the right to get their message out, but taxpayers have the right to personal privacy. Black's measure was unanimously approved in a senate committee, but is not yet scheduled for a vote in the full senate.