Are election texts even legal?

COLORADO SPRINGS — We’re less than three weeks away from the midterm elections, which makes it hard to avoid political campaigns. From commercials to commercials to calls, it’s easy to see that it’s election season.

The newest way for politicians to reach you is the easiest way, via text.

Some voters may be wondering why they are getting these texts, despite being on the do not call register. Well, most messages and calls do not apply to this rule.

The Federal Communications Commission does not allow politicians to use autodialers to contact voters en masse.

But the rule does not prevent volunteers from contacting you. So, the campaign texts come from the volunteers’ real cell phone numbers.

“Specifically, election calls cannot be regulated by the FCC. And therefore they are allowed,” said local attorney Jeremy Loew.

Most of these volunteers get your number from a voter registration database. They can request this from the Secretary of State or from the county officials. If you provided your phone number when you registered to vote, then it is public.

“We all unsubscribe from them or text STOP, but our name is on the list and this list is controlled by two major parties and they sell it to other customers,” Loew said.

It can be hard to stop these texts.

“So these calls and messages that we’re getting, whether we’re on the Do Not Call list or not, we’re still going to get them, unfortunately,” Loew said.

If you would like to receive fewer messages, you can go to govotecolorado.com and remove your phone number. This will make it difficult for volunteers to get your number. A faster way to get them to stop is to vote. If they see you’ve already discarded your ballot, they’re less likely to contact you.
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