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Local News Story
Robocall group agrees to $100K penalty in NC
RALEIGH, N.C., 10.21.2008
AP
A group that made automated phone calls to North Carolina voters before the May primary in violation of state law will pay a $100,000 penalty and stay out of politics until after Election Day, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Tuesday.
The group, Women's Voices Women Vote, apologized when it became public in late April that its robocalls had provided confusing information about voter registration in the weeks before the primary. Cooper said the calls broke state law by failing to include information on the group or a way to contact the organization.
Page Gardner, president of the Washington-based organization, said leaving off the contact information was an ``inadvertent error'' and entered into the settlement agreement with Cooper's office. The group said the calls were designed to boost voter turnout among unmarried women.
Democracy North Carolina and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had filed complaints after some residents received robocalls from a ``Lamont Williams,'' who told listeners a voter registration packet was coming in the mail. But the traditional registration period for the primary had already ended.
``It was not our intention that the robocalls or our mailings cause any confusion as to whether any individual was already registered to vote,'' Gardner said in a statement. ``To the contrary, our effort was squarely aimed at encouraging registration of underrepresented voters in North Carolina for the upcoming general election.''
The group complied with a demand to stop the phone calls in late April. Gardner said it has not been working in the state since then and agreed to extend the moratorium through Nov. 4.
Cooper said he wants to see the state's ``Do Not Call'' registry for telemarketing calls expanded to remove its exemption for political robocalls.
``My office takes quick action against robocalls that don't strictly follow the law,'' Cooper said. ``People who don't want these calls shouldn't get them at all.''
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