NAPLES, Fla. - Some days, eight dinnertime phone calls interrupt Tim and Sally Schrader.
"A lot of times, we don't even pick up," said Tim Schrader, 69, of Naples. "This time of year, you know who it is."
You can bet it's Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney, prerecorded of course, trying to sway undecided voters before Florida's primary Tuesday.
Automated campaign calls are transforming some Florida households into call centers, lighting up landlines several times a day. If no one answers, sometimes they leave a message on the answering machine.
Like them or not, robocalls are pervasive, and strategists say they're legal and effective.
"They do work, and people do listen to them," said Brett Doster, a GOP strategist heading Romney's Florida campaign. "At this point our goal is to use any possible medium to get the message out."
Some recipients say the calls are negative; others say they simply repeat the candidates' talking points.
Pro-Romney messages tout his business savvy and Massachusetts governorship. The Gingrich tapes talk about his record as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
For those receiving four or more calls per day, mere mention of the telephonic sales pitch can elicit firm condemnation.
"I got bombarded with them, and I hate them, and I cannot believe that they're effective. The GOP will tell you that they are," said Lavigne Kirkpatrick, a Republican who campaigned for Herman Cain before he dropped out. Now she heads the Naples Tea Party group and will not endorse a candidate.
"I got bombarded with them, and I hate them, and I cannot believe that they're effective. The GOP will tell you that they are," said Lavigne Kirkpatrick, a Republican who campaigned for Herman Cain before he dropped out.
The calls are a turn off for Chester Phillips, 68, who cares little for the mudslinging he hears.
"Did you hear that Mitt Romney didn't have his tie on straight today?" he mocked. "Did you know that Gingrich wore a dirty shirt to Congress?"
Few will acknowledge robocalls persuade them, but the method is used by candidates of every party and level of government.
They are as common as the stump speech and less expensive. In cases of misinformation and voter suppression, the calls have sparked controversy, but political strategists consider them an effective means of spreading a message.
And there's no way to stop them.
In Florida, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services administers the state's "do not call" list. For $10 per phone line, residents can put a stop to unwanted sales calls by phoning the department. But political calls, by Florida statute, are exempt, said department spokeswoman Sarah Criser.
Some states, including California and Indiana, have restrictions on robocalls, requiring that recipients consent to listening to the recorded message before it is played.
"Every cycle people say, 'We're sick of the phone calls; we're sick of the advertising,'" said Doster, the Romney strategist.
He has been managing campaigns in the Sunshine State since 1994. Through eight election cycles, including the George W. Bush re-election campaign, he has used automated phone calls.
"And I suspect, until the phone is somehow outmoded as a form of communication, we'll keep doing them," he said.
Stephen C. Craig, a University of Florida professor in the Political Campaigning Program, said the jury is out on robocalls.
"To my knowledge, there is no systemic evidence that robocalls have either" the effect of influencing votes or getting people to the polls, Craig wrote in an email. "I doubt very seriously if legitimate calls affect votes. ... They are more likely to boost turnout but only certain cases, not as a general rule."
(Contact Ben Wolford of the Naples Daily News in Florida at BPWolford(at)naplesnews.com