Republicans Want to Clog Your Voicemail With Telemarketing Pitches

POPSUGAR Photography | Sheila Gim
POPSUGAR Photography | Sheila Gim

If Republicans end up getting their way, you might end up HEARING a lot more voicemails on your cellphone. The Republican National Committee is supporting a new petition that would let telemarketers call you and leave a voicemail — without even ringing your phone.

The petition, filed by All About the Message LLC, is asking the FCC to give a ruling on its voicemail technology. The FCC is letting the public comment until June 2. So far, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is supporting this type of "robocall," stating that it's not a regular phone call and doesn't violate rules set by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The law currently makes telemarketers get "written consent" from a consumer before robocalling them. In the RNC's statement, the organization also tries to argue that if the FCC doesn't allow this to pass, it could violate the first amendment.

The RNC stands to win from a ruling in All About Message's favor, seeing as the organization could flood votes with voicemails supporting Republican candidates. While the Democratic National Convention (DNC) hasn't issued a statement, it could also benefit from a positive ruling. Not that this would be anything new for the party; the RNC conducted robocalls to voters in Montana on May 23 and 24, for Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte. Gianforte gained national attention for being charged with assault after bodyslamming a reporter that same day. He went on to win the special election on May 25.