With the presidential election approaching, political calls are at an all time high. We have seen tons of complaints recently berating both the McCain and Obama campaigns for their incessant calling and shameless smear tactics.

To many these calls have become such a nuisance it's difficult to understand how they are entirely legal. As you may already know, political calls are exempt from the Do Not Call Registry. Campaigns take full advantage of this fact, and rely heavily on automated robo-calls because this is an inexpensive way to reach large numbers of voters.

In April Pew Research uncovered that robo-calls have become the primary form of campaign outreach, outranking both direct mailings and personal calls. It was recently reported that many voters in battleground states receive from 10 to 15 robo-calls per day (!!). As several Caller Complaints users point out, campaign organizers may be doing their party a disservice by resorting to this tactic.

I mean, can a robo-call swing an undecided voter to one side or the other? Or convince an Obama supporter to switch to the McCain camp, or vice versa? I would argue that this scenario is unlikely. In support of this theory, Pew Research found that around 45% of voters surveyed said they "usually hang up on such calls", and don't bother to listen to the pre-recorded message.

Then why do they do it?! I'm sure there is a strategic reason, but does this really justify the agony for the rest of us?

Here's what a few Caller Complaints users had to say...

"Continuous calling. Very annoying. I was voting Democrat but now will vote Republican." - Meow

"They're calling my cell phone number. I'm a staunch Obama supporter and consider their robo calls just another desperate and annoying tactic." -Mark

"This abusively distorted message is clearly designed to enrage unreasonable fears and hatreds. I have never been more shocked by invasive political ugliness in my life! McCain and Palin have no shame!" -Kathy

Ring, Ring...is Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama home? Hello Sir, please don't hang up. This is a pre-recorded message from the American people and we have an important message for you. Please stop calling us, it's extremely annoying and tempts us to not vote for either of you.

- This message paid for by the CallerComplaints.com community :).