Original article: Action 9 explains who’s behind all those political texts – WSOC TV
You’re probably getting inundated with political texts. Ever wonder who’s sending them? How they got your number?
Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke says the process starts long before you know it.
Anytime you’re online -- no matter how careful you are -- chances are, someone is collecting data on you, data mining your interests and habits. And, of course, your voter information is already public record.
“All of that information is sold and purchased on a daily basis across the country,” political consultant Larry Shaheen Jr. said.
Shaheen says some of the buyers are businesses that do political texting. “There’s a ton of companies that do this,” he said.
Political campaigns then hire those companies to text you, companies like RoboCent.
“A regular standard SMS, which is just 160 character segments, is going to be 3 cents and then adding a picture to that increases the character limit to 1,500 and allows you to attach a graphic… flyer, picture of the candidate and their family, or a sample ballot. And that’s going to be 7 cents for registered messaging,” RoboCent’s Travis Trawick said.
Campaigns that aren’t registered -- which means they don’t have the same credibility -- pay more. Want video? That costs more too. So, campaigns research what demos they need to win and only target those voters. “You then go to that company and say I would like to purchase this ‘universe,’” Shaheen said.
“If you get into congressional, state house, state senate races, U.S. Senate obviously, Presidential of course, they’re doing microtargeting down to the individual voter across the board,” Trawick said. He says big campaigns do that themselves. His company works with smaller ones. “Over the course of a campaign, you can get easily dozens of different universes. Sometimes, they can change week by week.”
If it’s a legitimate campaign -- not a scammer -- the number that shows up on your phone should be from the campaign, not spoofed. Now, that doesn’t mean someone is manning that line. So, if you call back, good luck getting a real person. But Shaheen told Stoogenke that in all his years consulting, he can recall one campaign that did man that line. In fact, the actual candidate manned it himself: Jeff Tarte.
“Most of them don’t even believe it’s you,” Tarte told Stoogenke. “And the tone changes dramatically when they realize you’re not a robocall, but an actual live person.”
He smiles thinking back. It was the 2012 state senate race. He won that primary by only 200-some votes. He believes answering that phone may have been what pushed him over the top.
“The point I want to emphasize is that, yes, this is the most annoying thing ever ... [but] door knocks, phone calls, and texts from real people make an absolute difference in campaigns,” Shaheen said.
Stoogenke asked Trawick, “What do you say to all the folks out there who think you’re the bad guy? Who think that you’re texting them and wish you would just stop?” Trawick replied, “Yeah, well, first of all, I get a ton of texts myself” and went on to describe how RoboCent follows the law.
First, it allows you to opt out of its texts. “We have a Do Not Contact list on our website that anybody can apply their number to and that removes them from our entire network, not just the individual campaigns that may be texting them,” he said.
Second, he says his company vets clients thoroughly to make sure they’re legitimate and that legit ones play by the federal rules, including, he paraphrased, “Any political text that you get, you reply STOP, S-T-O-P, that’s it, you will not get a text from that organization again.”
Obviously, he can’t speak for every business and, unfortunately, you never know if the one texting you follows the law or breaks it.
Bottom line: it’s hard to completely stop the texts. If it’s a legitimate campaign, text STOP and they should listen. But if it’s a scammer there’s not much you can do. If you feel a text breaks the law, you can file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission here.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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