Monday August 6, 2012
For Immediate Release
From Craig Covey, Oakland County Commissioner, D-Ferndale cell: 248.721.6434

COVEY CAMPAIGN WILL NOT USE “ROBO” CALLS
(Ferndale) No one likes them: those pre-recorded, automated phone calls that start coming in to people’s homes in the final days of a political candidate’s election campaign. They can interrupt your dinner, or make you get up while trying to watch a game on tv. They can wake you from a nap, or interrupt any other activity you may be trying to accomplish.
“They’re cheap and annoying, and people hate to get them,” said Craig Covey, Oakland County Democratic County Commissioner. “I didn’t use them when I ran for mayor or county commissioner, and I will never use them in any campaign I may enter in the future,” he added.
Automated, pre-recorded “robo” calls are used to get more votes at the tail end of a political candidate’s campaign. They cost as little as 2 cents per call. Michigan voters were inundated with such calls during the Republican presidential primary, and in last year’s Governor’s race.
Some candidates, from both parties, use them as a last ditch effort to turn out the vote. They have thankfully never been able to use them for cell phones, but residents who have land lines must still bear the ringing phones and inconvenience, even if they have answering machines.
People on the “do not call” list can also get these recorded calls.
“My volunteers and I may make live calls to neighbors and friends on Monday or Tuesday of next week, but door to door contact and letters are the main way we are reaching voters in Oak Park, Hazel Park, Ferndale, Huntington Woods, and Royal Oak Township,” said Covey. “We will never use “robo” calls.
Covey is in what most experts believe to be a very tight race for the Democratic nomination for Oakland County Commission’s new 18th district, which came about through Republican gerrymandering after this past winter’s “power grab” by the state and county GOP. They fitted four democrats into two new districts, in order to get rid of two.
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