The evolving "Wild West" of political advertising

We've all seen a lot of political ads lately. But in battleground states, it's a tsunami. Jack Levis is an independent voter in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which makes him one of the most desirable voters on the planet: "Emails, texts, phone calls, it's in my news feed, it's in social media. In the last two days, I counted, I had 30 spam emails in there all about the election," he said. "It's unbelievable."

Not to mention TV and radio commercials. "Come on, it's everywhere!" he laughed. "Are you kidding me? Ad after ad after ad!"

Erica Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks campaign advertising, and co-author of "Political Advertising in the United States," says she actually...