Michigan Election Law Blog
Anyone with an email address or cell phone is painfully familiar with spam messages, unsolicited e-mails, phone calls, and text messages, clogging our already crowded inboxes and resulting in constant notifications to our phones. While commercial spam tries to entice us to buy something year-round, every two years, voters must also suffer through an uptick of political advertisements during election season. Candidates are increasingly reliant on free mediums (such as email or social media advertising) and low-cost mediums (such as phone calls and text messages) to get their message across to voters and potential donors. As a result, voters are inundated with spam messages they cannot opt-out of or avoid, and Congress is likely powerless to stop it.