Political calls jam Comcast system in New England

(AP) -- Telecommunications company Comcast says massive numbers of automatically dialed political telephone calls that caused service outages in New England have dropped off sharply.

The outages came Monday as political campaigns hit the phones to woo voters before Tuesday's midterm elections.

Philadelphia-based Comcast says congestion resulting from the calls Monday night forced it to reroute phone traffic as it tried to identify the carrier whose telephone numbers were generating them.

Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas says the volume of calls dropped precipitously Monday evening, easing the service problems. He says only the New Hampshire area and perhaps parts of Massachusetts appear to have been affected.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party says it lost phone service at local campaign offices at 11 locations around the state beginning Monday afternoon.