Political robocalls annoy the hell out of just about everyone, but on Election Day Eve this year in New England, things somehow got even worse. A barrage of last-minute automated calls to voters in New Hampshire and part of Massachusetts actually took down Comcast’s phone network. “Between 5:30 pm and 7pm, whenever I tried to call out on Comcast VOIP the phone either would not dial or there would be a message saying all circuits were busy,” writes David, who lives in the affected area. “I know – I should cancel the landline!” Only if the robocallers have your number.

So what happened? A company spokeswoman told the Boston Globe on Monday night, “Comcast is experiencing severe call volumes on the evening before the election due to auto dialing activity that is generating a massive number of inbound political phone calls to our network. As soon as we were made aware of the congestion this was causing, we began to reroute traffic around it.”

In a contest of political robocalls vs. Comcast… there are no winners.

Flood of robocalls disrupts service in Eastern Mass., N.H. [Boston Globe] (Thanks, David!)

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