When election time draws near, many voters receive mail, phone calls, home visits, and other forms of contact about campaigns or candidates. However, in the past few years, the number of political endorsement calls has dramatically increased. These calls occur in virtually every state, but it has been found that the residents of certain states tend to receive more calls than others. Furthermore, many of the endorsement calls are pre-recorded and are completely impersonal.

For instance, a research survey conducted on the early primary states, Iowa and New Hampshire, have found that not only have most of the voters within theses states received phone calls, but quite a few of these calls, particularly those made on behalf of the Republican campaign and candidates, have been pre-recorded or "robo" calls.

It is estimated that 83% of potential Republican voters in Iowa have received a personal call or a pre-recorded call. It is interesting to note that a rather large minority of 37% have only received automated campaign calls, while approximately 43% have received both personal and pre-recorded calls.

On the other hand, an estimated 61% of Democratic voters received both types of calls, while only 21% received pre-recorded calls. New Hampshire followed a similar pattern. Therefore, it appears that in these primary states, far more Democratic voters are actually contacted by an individual instead of a pre-recorded message in comparison to Republican voters.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that a large number of the potential voters who received the pre-recorded calls considered the automated messages annoying and hung up on these calls rather than remaining on the line.

If you have experienced automated campaign or candidate messages on your cell phone or landline phone, and find these calls irritating, you don't have to put up with these calls if they are really causing your frustration. After all, they may in fact be the result of someone playing a prank and may have nothing to do with the political campaign. Therefore, you can find out who an annoying caller is here and make your complaints heard.