Rules for Political Telemarketing

It is a big election year and many political candidates will be using our voice broadcast, or “robocalls,” to reach voters.  The question came up as to how the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 fits in with political candidates.  You probably know that political candidates are given more leeway when it comes to outbound telemarketing without a bonafied opt-in.

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, politicians and campaign volunteers may call voters on their landline or wireless phones. But when a campaign uses an auto dialer to leave a “robocall” (precorded message), calls to wireless phones are prohibited.  In short, it is:

• legal for a campaign to call voters on their landline phones using an auto dialer to leave a robocall without the “prior express consent of the called party.”
• illegal for a campaign to contact voters using to use auto dialers and robocalls to their cellphones without prior express consent.

The same rules apply to text messages.  It is:

• legal for campaign workers to send texts to voters’ cellphones.  For this service, political candidates can use text message marketing services such as 84444.com.

To learn more about TCPA, please visit the FCC’s websites on telemarketing and SPAM texts.

Please do not consider this legal advice.  You should consult your own attorneys to get your own legal opinion.