Recently while I switched from T-mobile to iPhone's AT&T, I chose to get a brand, new cell number rather than keep my old cell number. The reason was I had given my T-mobile number when I registered to vote and my mobile number had since been registered in the Elections Department database and become the object of much annoying political phone spam. I got SMS messages and phone calls from political campaigns at all hours of the day and night. It was absolutely unbearable, and such volume like nothing I'd ever experienced before. It was an annoying intrusion on my privacy too. (Also, the old street address where I registered was getting a ton of paper political junk mail. So much, that my friend asked me to *please* change the address where I registered because she couldn't stand the pile of junk political mail.)
My current boyfriend is the type who can't imagine doing anything illegal. He was appalled when I said I would contribute to a cause only if I could give a fake phone number. I didn't want that political spam on my cell phone again. He said it was illegal to donate to a political campaign and not give your real, actual phone number. I said OK, I won't donate then, because I refuse to give my real phone number to anything having to do with an election again. Then my boyfriend said "Why don't you give your time to the campaign instead? You could volunteer to make campaign calls for them."
What has the world come to? Everyone is either the brunt of political spam or is expected to generate it? And who's that? It looks like the government that's on their high horse saying legal spam must have an easy way for the receiver to opt out? Apparently those are the legal spam rules, unless it's the government that's generating the spam.
This election has been the worst ever in terms of invasion of privacy and illegal spam. Woah there government, don't start thinking you can do whatever you want à la Nixon: "If the President [or future President] does it, it's not illegal".