You may have received a text message from a candidate or about an issue in the upcoming November election. Keith Smith, associate professor of political science at the University of the Pacific, joined KCRA 3 to answer questions about this practice. Below is the Q&A. Why do more candidates seem to be using text messages and emails instead of traditional mailers? Smith: “So one of the simple answers is that it’s cheaper. It’s much cheaper to send a message to voters than to actually send it, and the second part of that is that it’s more likely to be seen by voters than a mailer. Because when you get a message, you have to say, “Oh, what?” Is this a text message?’ And you see it visually, but if you’re like me, when you go into your mailbox, you know, you flip through mailers and you don’t care about anything. Just throw it away. “What does the law say about receiving these direct messages from candidates?” So text messages from political campaigns, according to a 2021 Supreme Court ruling. Prior to 2021, campaigns could not send text messages without someone’s explicit consent to receive text messages. ‘But then the Supreme Court said, ‘No, no, no, no.’ As long as someone is doing the same thing as a political phone call – as long as it’s a human being making the call or sending the text message – a campaign can do it. ”And a whole industry developed for campaigning. “Someone can just sit there and click a button and send a text, and that’s perfectly fine. The rest of the work can be automated.” “How does the campaign get our phone number? Right. It’s very easy because we provide the phone number.”We send the phone number to a lot of organizations, a lot of companies, where we collect it and run a campaign…or we do it. It takes data from other interactions we’ve had and merges it with our voter files to get a better picture of who we’re likely to vote for, how often we’re likely to vote, and Just send a message using the numbers you get from all sorts of other services. ” Are you getting a lot of candidate text/email messages? “You can also do what I did and send them reported as spam. Reply “stop” to the messages. can. Campaigns, like any other service we may subscribe to, whether intentionally or unintentionally, may stop sending us texts when we say we want to stop them. It’s supposed to stop. And these are really two options: report it as junk or reply to it with a “don’t do it”. ” I think the important thing is to not click on links unless you really want to. Make sure it’s from a campaign. Don’t click on links, especially if they ask for money. Many bad actors have figured out how to steal messages by creating them to look like they’re from a campaign. We will never ask for your personal information elsewhere or ask for money that you don’t actually want to participate in a campaign. “So, just as you should be suspicious of unsolicited emails, you should also be suspicious of links. ‘How can you tell if it’s fake?’ I don’t know if there are any clear indicators. No. So if you end up receiving unsolicited email from us, the same thing will happen. It’s a phishing attempt, right? Are there any typos? Is there a strange URL that doesn’t seem to be related to a campaign? Could it be for a candidate who isn’t really campaigning well? “You just need to do your homework to make sure it’s actually legal. And if you really want to donate money to a campaign, or really want to respond to a campaign, an easy way is to go to their site Go to the website on Google instead of following links from website text.” See more of California’s top stories | Download the app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter. Please. For more information about the November election, including key issues and other ballot races, check out the KCRA 3 Voter Guide. Read more political news from the national team here.
You may have received a text message from a candidate or about an issue in the upcoming November election.
Keith Smith, associate professor of political science at the University of the Pacific, joined KCRA 3 to answer questions about this practice.
Below is the Q&A.
Why do more candidates seem to be using texts and emails instead of traditional mailers?
SMITH: “So one of the easy answers is, it doesn’t cost anything. It’s a lot cheaper to send a text message than it is to mail something to a voter. And number two. That part is more likely to be seen by voters, because at least when you get the text message, you have to think, “Oh, what was that text message?”
“And you can see it visually, but if you’re like me, when you go into your mailbox, you know, you flip through the mail, you throw out the stuff you don’t care about, and then , you know, just leave it at that. That’s the email you really need.”
What does the law say about receiving these direct messages from candidates?
“So text messages from political campaigns stem from a 2021 Supreme Court decision. Prior to 2021, unless someone explicitly consented to receive text messages, campaign could not send text messages.
“But then the Supreme Court said, ‘No, no, no, no.'” can do it.
“Then the whole industry developed campaigns where as long as someone sits there and clicks a button and sends a text, it’s perfectly fine and they can automate the rest.
“How does a campaign get our phone number? Well, it’s very easy, because we give it to a lot of organizations, a lot of companies, and those companies use it. or a campaign-centered organization could combine data from other interactions we’ve had with voter files to figure out who we are. So they can understand how likely they are to vote and how likely they are to vote. And they just use the numbers they voted for. We got it from all kinds of other services.”
What can voters do if they receive a ton of text/email messages from a candidate?
“You can also do what I did and send it being reported as junk. You can also reply ‘stop’ to the message. Campaigns, like any other service to which we may subscribe, whether intentionally or unintentionally, are supposed to: If we tell a campaign to stop, the campaign should stop texting us. And you actually have two choices: report it as junk or reply to it with a “don’t do it”.
“Importantly, don’t click on links unless you’re really sure it’s from a campaign, especially if it asks for money. Don’t click on links that are malicious. Somehow they’ve figured out how to pretend like they’re coming from a campaign, but then take them somewhere else and ask for personal information or money that’s not actually going to the campaign. I did.
“So, just as you should be suspicious of unsolicited emails, you should also be suspicious of links embedded in campaigns or texts you may receive.”
How can you spot a fake?
“I don’t know if there’s a clear indicator. So if you, we, end up receiving unsolicited email, it’s going to be the same thing. It’s a phishing attempt, right? Spelling. Is it wrong? Does it contain strange URLs that don’t seem to be associated with the campaign?
“You just need to do your homework to make sure it’s actually legal. And if you really want to donate money to a campaign, or really want to respond to a campaign, an easy way is to go to their site Go to the website. Don’t follow the links in the text. Go to the website.”
See more top California news stories | Download the app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter
For more information about the November election, including key issues and other races on the ballot, check out the KCRA 3 Voter Guide.
Read more political news from the national team here.
