Tulsa World: Poll Calls Irk Liotta

By Tom Droege, World Staff Writer

State Rep. Mark Liotta said his phone was ringing off the hook Saturday with automated calls from a political poll that he considers harassment. The barrage of calls to the Republican and some of his constituents has become so bad that the Legislature should try to ban such calls, he said.

"The phone rings all morning long, and they can't do anything about it except take the phone off the hook," Liotta said Saturday of his constituents. "I know there's political free speech, but this is harassment."

Liotta is running for re-election in House District 77. He will face Eric Proctor, a Democrat, on Nov. 7.

Liotta said the computerized call asks three questions: Do you plan to vote? If you do, will you vote for (candidate A) or (candidate B)? Do you normally vote for the Republican or Democrat?
Not only are the repeated calls annoying, Liotta said, but they ask about candidates not in the resident's district. "It's asking you how you would vote in an election you can't vote in," he said.

The call also gives a phone number, (405) 216-3110, which connects to a voice mailbox.
That further irritated Steve Bigelow of Tulsa, who said he received roughly a dozen of the calls Saturday. "There's no person to talk to to say 'Hey, quit calling me,' " he said.
The calls to Bigelow opened with an apparently digitized voice saying "This is Mike with Oklahoma Polling," he said.

Liotta said that although the calls were possibly the result of an automated system gone haywire, he thought they might be trying to identify swing voters. He also said he wanted to assure his constituents that the calls are not from his campaign. He has never used recorded calls or polls, he said.

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