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Group gives excuse for early morning robocalls sent to voters

Voters question legality of early morning robocall
Posted at 7:15 PM, Oct 31, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-01 05:31:20-04

I’m going,’ are you kidding me? At 4 am?’”, she said, “unreal.”

The call came from a group identifying themselves as the Drug Free Florida Committee, asking voters to vote against Amendment 2, which would legalize medical marijuana in the state.

ABC Action News received complaints from a handful of others who also got the call.

“We've had so many political robocalls that are just as annoying as the sales calls that are illegal,” said Howard, “ why is it okay for the political calls?”

In her case, the robocall on a landline is legal.

According to a letter from the FCC to campaign groups, prerecorded voice messages sent to landlines are permitted if they state clearly the name of their group or business and a number for people to call.

In this case, the group did both.

 However, that same message sent to a cell phone is not allowed.

Despite the rules, Billy Howard, attorney for The Consumer Protection Firm thinks recipients like Meadows could have a case for the time of the call.

“The way to hold these guys accountable is to sue them,” he said.

Christina Johnson, an spokesperson for the Vote No on 2 Campaign, provided ABC Action News the following statement about the calls:

“Our sincerest apologies to those voters who inadvertently received a recorded call during the early morning hours on Sunday. It was not our intention to have those calls made at that hour. These calls were supposed to be made starting in the early PM and were mistakenly sent in the early AM. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.”

Meadows says the call didn’t make a difference on how she’ll vote next week.

“Somebody dropped the ball,” she said.