Bill > H709

This bill proposes to amend Massachusetts election laws to provide disclosure requirements for political phone calls, particularly those involving "push-polling." The key provisions are: 1) It defines "bona fide survey and opinion research" to distinguish it from push-polling, which is defined as political phone calls that convey information about candidates in a manner likely to influence the voter, and are part of a series of more than 2,000 (for federal and statewide elections) or 500 (for local elections) connected calls lasting less than 2 minutes. 2) It requires any entity engaging in push-polling to inform the call recipient that it is a "paid political advertisement," identify the organization making and paying for the call, provide a valid phone number for the organization, and identify the candidate(s) the call is supporting or opposing. 3) Violations of these disclosure requirements would be punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. The overall purpose is to provide greater transparency around political phone calls that could be considered push-polling, a practice often used to sway voters through misleading or negative information about candidates.