A Brookline resident wants political candidates to quit using robo-calls, and is calling on Town Meeting to back a resolution against the automated phone calls.

A Brookline resident wants political candidates to quit using robo-calls, and is calling on Town Meeting to back a resolution against the automated phone calls.

Town Meeting member Michael Burstein filed the proposed resolution, which would go before Town Meeting in May. He said he was spurred on by the special Senate election, when he received automated calls from several candidates, including Democrats Martha Coakley and Steve Pagliuca, as well as Republican Scott Brown.

“It was during the special Senate campaign that it became an incessant annoyance,” said Burstein.

His proposed Town Meeting resolution would call on state and federal lawmakers to ban political robo-calls. Burstein questioned the effectiveness of robo-calls, as candidates can potentially leave messages with voters who have already made up their minds.

“Why waste your resources on somebody who has made their decision one way or another,” said Burstein.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the national Do Not Call Registry does not include automated calls on behalf of some groups, including charities and telephone surveyors. Those rules specifically exempt political robo-calls.

The automated, pre-recorded phone calls – which can be made easily with a computer with Internet access, access to a spreadsheet of phone numbers and specialized software – are prized by campaigns as a way to reach voters with prerecorded messages without tying up volunteers.

But some have pushed back against the calls. U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., proposed a bill in 2008 that would have limited the hours and number of robo-calls made by candidates for federal office in the weeks prior to an election.

Burstein said New Hampshire, California, Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina have all passed laws governing the use of robo-calls.

“All the anecdotal [stories] I’ve heard is robo-calls hurt,” Burstein said, whose resolution wouldn’t apply to live phone calls made by candidates or volunteers to voters, he said.

He also opposes automated phone calls because there’s no one on the other end of the line.

“There’s no way to tell the person, ‘Please don’t call me again,’” said Burstein.

According to a 2008 study from the Pew Research Center, 39 percent of voters said they received a pre-recorded call in the months before that the year’s presidential election. Researchers said that figure was double the number of voters who received a personal phone call from a campaign.

Tim Buckley, the communications manager for the Massachusetts Republican Party, said robo-calls are “part of the political process,” however, the party encourages candidates and their volunteers to go out and meet voters face-to-face whenever possible.

“Nothing can replace a firm handshake and a frank discussion” of issues, he said.

At the Green-Rainbow Party, the organization used robo-calls twice to notify registered party members of a party convention, said past Green-Rainbow gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein in a message to the TAB.

Beyond that, she said the party “does not look particularly favorably” on using automated calls to reach voters.

“We have never used robo-calls to garner votes,” Stein said.

Representatives of the Massachusetts Democratic Party could not be reached for comment.

Brian McNiff, spokesman for Secretary of State Bill Galvin, said there is no state regulations in place that deal with automated calls from political candidates or political organizations.

He said Galvin’s office occasionally gets complaints about such phone calls around elections.

“They’re more of an annoyance than anything else,” said McNiff.

Brookline Town Meeting begins on May 24.

John Hilliard can be reached at jhilliard@wickedlocal.com, twitter.com/draillih or 781-433-8362.