this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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Republican county commissioner has been unseated in Michigan after losing to her Democratic challenger by 20 percentage points.

Chris Kleinjans won an Ottawa County election on Tuesday with 60 percent of the vote share, while the Republican incumbent Lucy Ebel lost, having received 40 percent.

Michigan is a battleground state that will be key to November's presidential election. Donald Trump won the county with 61 percent of the vote in 2020.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 6 months ago (6 children)

I blame phone companies for that. They've had the ability to block scam calls for a while but haven't because it makes them money. Now people don't even bother answering their phones anymore, especially if it's an unknown number, so the only people who respond to polls aren't representative of the population.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Blame the FCC. It used to be illegal to telemarket to cell numbers.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

You can blame congress as well. They could be making laws to help with this

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I think I'll blame the people who actually have the capability of doing something about it. They could have done this years ago.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't think the phone companies have the power you imagine them to have.

If the entire global was controlled by a single entity they could stop this but that's not the reality. There are tons of gateway providers that you have never heard of.

This is literally the job of the FCC and they are already working on it but it takes time to herd this many cats. The big ones have already done their part.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Phone companies could easily prevent call spoofing which would make it easy for them to block known scam numbers. They have chosen not to.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

You didn't read anything I said or anything in the link.

You do not understand the problem and willfully do so.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There’s just no incentive. The market is going to dictate that carriers allow this to happen.

It has to be regulated. But “the market” also has its hand in congress’s underpants - the same congress that passes laws, and approves assignments, so only “approved“ people make their way to regulatory positions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I guess "It's just business" has been used to justify worse things

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

As far as I’m aware, there is a website that allows you to sign up to stop receiving these calls in the US. It’s worked for me and I never get sales calls anymore.

Sign up here

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Thanks for the reminder! Says I did it in 2018, but I registered again along with my 2nd number and my wife's. We shall see...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (3 children)

And really people are not making phone calls nearly as much as they used to. The pollsters need to find a reasonably unbiased method to sample people on other communication methods.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

I get texts about polls but I would rather jump on a live grenade than answer an unsolicited communication, be that a text or anything else, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I did a weekly email survey in 2016 for $5 gift cards each time. That definitely worked but I can't imagine it's sustainable. Paying people also probably comes with an entirely different sort of bias.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't see myself as too much of a loner or anything but I had a friend call me out of the blue during lunch and I just kept thinking.

Why oh why are you not texting me?

I'm horrible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

For me it's "why are you not texting" followed quickly by "oh god who died?!"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

I would like a federal law that allows me to receive $1 from any caller if I decide I didn't like the call. If at any point there is a failure to trace the call back to the caller, that point of failure pays the dollar on behalf of the true culprit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

It's been over a decade since I answered a call from a number that wasn't programmed into my phone. I won't return the call unless a voicemail is left.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

my phone will actually tell me ahead of time if it thinks the call is spam, a scam, or if it's a business what kind of business it's likely to be. but yeah, still don't answer anything that isn't in my contacts or from my local area code. text me or leave a voicemail. or don't, I don't really wanna talk to anybody as a rule anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

The name’s Likely. Scam Likely.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I don't answer any call that's not in my phone from anywhere that's not in my work region of like a third of the country and my own area code. Most scams for me are either my area code or come out or California for some reason.