In the last two weeks of any election season, you can’t sit down for supper without some politician calling with an automated, recorded call.
“I hate them!!!” one Republican Facebook friend said to me. “I delete them almost instantly” from voicemail, said an equally-irritated Democratic friend, adding, “These messages aren’t the best way to convince me to get your vote.” Yet another friend who got eight calls in one day from the same Mount Pleasant candidate recently took easy revenge — by voting for someone else.
Yes, these “robocalls” are annoying. But did you know they are also against state law? Well, most of them are.
Unfortunately, few people complain, in part because it’s confusing and hard to figure out where to file a complaint. But even if you do complain, political consultants aren’t going to stop the practice for now because the fine is so cheap — just $100. “I’d just pay the fine,” one consultant remarked.
That means the state needs to start stepping up and enforcing the law.
First, however, it might be good for voters to know where to complain. How about the state Election Commission, which runs elections? Nope. Try the state Ethics Commission, a spokesman suggested. And what did folks there say? Wrong place, too.
Instead, complaints should go to the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs, which one senior state attorney said seemed to be “the oddest place” for illegal political calls to be reported. But in the twisted way that government sometimes works, it does make a little sense, because Consumer Affairs gets complaints about business robocalls, particularly from telemarketers selling everything from time shares and home security systems to Medicare products and lower-interest credit cards.
Consumer Affairs Administrator Carri G. Lybarker said her agency has received only four complaints over the last decade about political robocalls. (Count us as number five.)
“We’re not seeing any kind of influx or pattern that shows more attention needs to be given,” she said, adding that most people probably just ignore the calls.
But that doesn’t mean the state — or politicians — should ignore the law.
According to the law, political robocalls are illegal unless a person specifically asks to receive them (who would torture themselves with this?). Other exceptions are for calls connected with a debt, contract or existing business relationship, which wouldn’t apply. The statute calls for a civil penalty of $100 per violation, which can go up to $500 or 30 days in jail for a third or subsequent violation.
To confuse matters, however, the statute refers to another part of state law that suggests a telephone solicitor can make a call if the seller, purpose of the call and “nature of the goods and services” are promptly disclosed. That exemption might not fit for political calls, but there’s never been a request for an interpretation from the department, Lybarker said. (We’ll be sending a letter.)
And to muddy the waters even more, there’s a 2010 opinion from the S.C. Attorney General’s office that says “political telephone calls are acceptable to telephone answering machines but not to live answerers.”
Translation: political robocalls in South Carolina are illegal if you can pick up the phone and hear it. If you’re not home, telephone solicitors can leave their political trash on your voicemail.
It’s sad that these robocalls may impact elections. Just this month, a good candidate almost certainly lost a runoff election by a few dozen votes because the opponent had a prominent leader make a last-minute robocall. The call might have been enough to remind voters to support the popular leader’s endorsee, which boosted turnout just enough to hurt the good candidate.
Automated political calls to people who answer the telephone are illegal in South Carolina. Instead of passively ignoring them, state officials should start enforcing the law and issuing fines. But that also means people who are irritated need to start complaining by contacting the state Department of Consumer Affairs — unless the legislature can clean up the law and make it clearer.
Andy Brack is publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com. 

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