Robocall, phone bank, patch-through: the terms
A robocall is a prerecorded or autodialed voice call delivered to many numbers at once; a phone bank is live callers, volunteer or paid, working a list one conversation at a time; a patch-through (or transfer call) offers the voter a live transfer, usually by key press, to another line. Keypad surveys are robocalls that collect a response by key press. The rules below turn on two distinctions: whether the voice is live or prerecorded, and whether the number is a landline or a cell phone.
| Format | Voice | Scale | Typical job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robocall | Prerecorded | Thousands per hour | Reminders, recorded endorsements, event notices |
| Keypad survey | Prerecorded, with key-press response | Thousands per hour | Voter ID, issue polling, support scoring |
| Patch-through / transfer call | Prerecorded or live, then a live transfer | Hundreds to thousands | Advocacy to an office, volunteer or donor connection |
| Phone bank | Live caller | Caller hours | Persuasion, ID, turnout conversations, recruitment |
The FCC rules for political calls
Political autodialed or prerecorded calls are allowed to residential landlines without prior consent, limited to three calls to the same line in any 30-day period absent consent; the same calls to cell phones require prior express consent; campaign calls are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry; and a request to stop must be honored in any reasonable manner. Source: FCC, "Political Campaign Robocalls and Robotexts Rules," last reviewed March 5, 2025, read October 21, 2026.
| Call | To a residential landline | To a cell phone |
|---|---|---|
| Prerecorded voice message | Allowed without prior consent; no more than three per 30 days to the same line without consent | Prohibited without the called party's prior express consent |
| Autodialed live call | Allowed | Prohibited without prior express consent |
| Manually dialed live call (phone bank) | Allowed | Allowed; the autodialer rules do not apply to a person dialing |
| AI-generated voice | Treated as an artificial voice: prerecorded rules apply | Treated as an artificial voice: consent required |
| Protected lines (emergency, hospital, toll-free) | Autodialed or prerecorded calls prohibited without consent | Same |
The regulation behind the page is 47 CFR 64.1200(a), which bars calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express consent to the listed lines (eCFR, read October 21, 2026). A live caller dialing one number at a time is the phone bank's compliance advantage: the autodialer rules do not reach a human conversation, which is why live calls can go to cell phones that have never opted in.
What a prerecorded message must say
Every artificial or prerecorded voice message must state, clearly and at the beginning, the identity of the individual or entity initiating the call (the official business name for a corporate entity), and must provide the calling party's telephone number during or after the message. Source: FCC political rules page, read October 21, 2026. In practice that means the first words of the recording name the committee, the script ends with a callback number, and a request to stop made on that number is honored across the program.
- Open with the committee name, in the words the committee registered elsewhere, so the voice identity matches the texting identity.
- Say the callback number in the message, not only in caller ID.
- Offer a way to stop, and suppress the number everywhere the committee calls or texts.
- Keep any paid-for disclaimer the state or the FEC requires for the race; disclaimer rules vary by jurisdiction and sit with counsel.
Hours and frequency
Federal rules set an 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window, at the called party's local time, for telephone solicitations (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)), and cap unconsented political robocalls to a residential landline at three in any 30-day period. States set their own hours for political calls and the stricter rule governs. Political calls are not solicitations in the regulation's sense, so the 8 to 9 window is a floor rather than the whole rule; it is the floor most programs adopt, tightened where a state requires. FullPAC enforces send windows and quiet hours automatically per state; a client-facing statute index is in counsel review.
What robocalls cost
Published rates for political voice run in cents per dial and scale with message length. RoboCent, FullPAC's direct-to-campaign brand, publishes robocalls starting at 1 cent per dial for a message up to 15 seconds, plus 1 cent per additional 15 seconds, landlines only; transfer calls at the robocall rate plus 1.5 cents per dial for the live-agent transfer; and keypad surveys at a flat 3.5 cents per dial, from 5 cents with voicemail and 1 cent per extra 15 seconds on the voicemail. Source: robocent.com/pricing, read October 21, 2026. Voter data from the same page: mobile records from 5.5 cents, landline records from 3 cents, each with age, party, history and demographics.
| Product | Published rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Robocall | From 1¢ per dial, up to 15 seconds; +1¢ per added 15 seconds | Landlines only; longer messages cost more |
| Transfer (patch-through) call | Robocall rate + 1.5¢ per dial | For the live-agent transfer |
| Keypad survey | Flat 3.5¢ per dial; from 5¢ with voicemail | +1¢ per extra 15 seconds on the voicemail |
| Landline voter records | From 3¢ per record | Age, party, history, demographics; filter by district or zip |
Three things move a voice budget more than the per-dial rate: the length of the recording (every 15 seconds is a step), the share of the universe that is landline (the only numbers a prerecorded program can call without consent), and how many passes the plan calls for inside the three-per-30-days cap. A 60-second message to 50,000 landlines is four length steps, not one; the worked arithmetic belongs in the plan, not the rate card.
How a phone bank is built and paid for
A phone bank is a list, a script, a dialer and callers. Volunteer banks cost staff time and the dialer; paid banks cost caller hours, which dominate the budget; both are measured in completed conversations per caller hour rather than per dial. Live calls are the format that can go to cell phones without prior consent, persuade, identify support and recruit, and the format whose cost does not fall with scale the way a recorded message's does. The organizing equivalent for text, where volunteers send and reply by hand, is covered in What is text banking?
| Model | Who calls | Cost shape | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volunteer bank | Supporters, staff-led shifts | Dialer and staff time; no per-hour wage | Campaigns with a volunteer base and a persuasion or turnout script |
| Paid bank | Vendor or in-house paid callers | Caller hours, plus list and dialer | Programs that need guaranteed shifts and reach without a volunteer base |
| Hybrid | Volunteers for persuasion, paid callers for ID and reminders | Mixed | Most statewide and congressional programs |
When to use which
| Job | Format | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Remind identified supporters where and when to vote | Robocall, landline universe; text for cell phones | Cheap, same-hour delivery at scale; landlines skew to older, high-propensity voters |
| Recorded endorsement from a known voice | Robocall | The message is the voice; a live caller cannot carry it |
| Identify support or an issue position across the universe | Keypad survey | A key press scores thousands of households an hour |
| Persuade an undecided voter | Phone bank | A conversation can answer an objection; a recording cannot |
| Drive constituents to a legislator's office | Patch-through | The transfer is the point |
| Reach cell-phone-only households without consent | Phone bank (manual dialing) | The autodialer and prerecorded rules do not reach a person dialing |
The final 72 hours
In the last three days, voice does two things texting cannot: a recorded message reaches the landline-only households that texting never sees, and a live caller can fix a polling-place question on the spot. The sequence most programs run: live persuasion and ID calls through the final week, a recorded reminder with the polling location and hours on election eve and Election Day morning to the landline universe, and texting carrying the cell-phone universe. All three draw the same targeting file, so a voter who has already voted comes off every list at once. Where a voice drop sits inside the wider plan is on the voice page; the dated calendar is built by the GOTV plan builder; the texting side of the same window is in GOTV text message templates.
The voice compliance checklist
- Split the universe by line type: prerecorded programs to landlines only, unless the campaign holds prior express consent for the mobile numbers.
- Open every recording with the committee's name and include a callback number in the message.
- Count passes against the three-per-30-days landline cap before the calendar is set.
- Set send windows per state, in the voter's time zone, with 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. as the floor.
- Honor every stop request across calls and texts, immediately.
- Treat any synthetic or cloned voice as prerecorded, with every rule that follows.
- Keep the scripts as sent, the dial logs and the opt-out log.
The texting side of the same rulebook
Registration, consent, content and hours for text are in Political texting compliance.
Questions campaigns ask
Are political robocalls legal?
Yes, with limits. Under the FCC's rules, political prerecorded or autodialed calls to residential landlines are allowed without prior consent, capped at three calls to the same line in any consecutive 30-day period absent consent. The same calls to cell phones require the called party's prior express consent. Every prerecorded message must identify the caller at the start and give a telephone number.
Can a campaign robocall cell phones?
Only with the called party's prior express consent. The FCC's rules prohibit autodialed or prerecorded voice calls to cell phones, pagers and other mobile devices without it, and the same applies to emergency, toll-free, hospital and similar protected lines. That is why published robocall programs are landline-only unless the campaign holds consent for the mobile numbers.
Do political calls have to follow the Do Not Call Registry?
No. The FCC states that campaign calls and texts are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry requirements. A request to stop made to the campaign still has to be honored, in any reasonable manner the called party uses.
What hours can political calls be made?
Federal rules set 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the called party's local time for telephone solicitations. Political calls are not solicitations under that rule, but many states set their own hours for political calls and the stricter rule governs. Most programs adopt the 8 to 9 window in the voter's time zone and tighten it where a state requires.
How much does a political robocall cost?
RoboCent, FullPAC's direct-to-campaign brand, publishes robocalls starting at 1 cent per dial for a message up to 15 seconds, plus 1 cent per additional 15 seconds, landlines only; live-agent transfer calls add 1.5 cents per dial and keypad surveys run a flat 3.5 cents per dial, from 5 cents with voicemail (robocent.com/pricing, read October 21, 2026). Other vendors' rates vary; ask for the per-dial price, the length increment and what counts as a dial.
What is a patch-through call?
A call where the voter hears a message or a live caller and is offered a transfer, often by pressing a key, to a legislator's office or another live line. On a published rate card it is priced as a transfer call: the robocall rate plus a per-dial transfer charge.
Is an AI-generated voice allowed in a political robocall?
The FCC has declared that calls made with AI-generated voices are artificial voices under the TCPA, so every prerecorded-call rule applies: consent for cell phones, identification at the start, a callback number, and the landline frequency cap. The ruling followed the New Hampshire deepfake robocalls.
Phone bank or robocall: which is better for GOTV?
They do different jobs. A robocall is a cheap, fast, landline-heavy reminder or recorded endorsement that lands at scale the same hour. A phone bank is a live conversation that can persuade, identify support, answer a question and recruit, at a cost measured in caller hours. Most GOTV programs run both: live calls through the final week, recorded reminders on the last days.