Elections: How SMS and 10DLC can increase voter engagement and combat misinformation

In the run up to an election the focus for political parties, activist organizations, and polling agencies is to reach as many people as possible with clear and concise information. This includes all sectors of the voting population both in cities and rural areas where there may be lower levels of digital adoption. This makes SMS the ideal channel, and 10DLC the recommended option for reliably reaching all potential voters. 

In the US, where voter participation rates are highest amongst older, wealthier, and more highly educated citizens, there are a number of non-profit organizations that actively encourage voter registration in politically under-represented communities. Field experiments have shown that turnout rates increase by an average of 9.3% for people that received messages encouraging mobilization, with text message being the most effective channel.     

A similar result was obtained by researchers in the UK who conducted a study in 2021/2022 and found that simple text message reminders increased voter registration by 8%. 

In close-run elections, as the 2024 US presidential race promises to be, an increase of 8-9% in turnout could have a significant impact on results. 

So why is text messaging such a successful tool at election time, and how can it be used both effectively and ethically?    

Reach more people: SMS can be used to reach voters anywhere that has cell signal. As most people always have their phones on them, SMS can be used to reach voters at any time, even in the polling queue. With open rates over 90%, SMS increases the chances that important messages will be seen.  

Personalized communication at scale: Texts messages can be easily adapted for specific groups of voters or entire regions. Messages can also be sent from local numbers that increase the sense of trust and familiarity.  

Connect directly with voters: Using text messaging as a communication channel enables organizations to bypass traditional media, which may have their own political agenda and low levels of trust amongst some groups of voters. 

Cost-effectiveness: Reach more people with the same budget due to the relatively affordable cost of sending text messages when compared with print and paid media. 

Two-way communication: SMS and 10DLC enable two-way communication and the potential for a more conversational style of interaction. This makes it well suited to research, polling, and volunteer recruitment at scale. 

Increased agility: Due to the nature of SMS and the control that organizations have when using 10DLC, messaging can be quickly adapted as things change during the election cycle. There will always be last-minute policy updates, skeletons falling out of candidates’ closets, or reruns in closely contested races. SMS can be used to quickly update messaging in all these cases.  

Easy integrations: Text message campaigns can easily slot into or complement broader digital strategies and be used in conjunction with social media and messaging apps to maximize reach in demographics where those channels are not as popular.     

We commissioned a poll of 2012 Americans of voting age from across the social and political spectrum to find out how they felt about the use of SMS as a channel during an election cycle.

Bear in mind that when sending SMS messages as part of an election campaign you are mostly preaching to the converted. People must have opted in to receive messages, with the majority presumably already intending to vote for your candidate. Most use cases therefore focus on providing information, mobilization, and fundraising, although it doesn’t hurt to include a more direct pitch to help sway undecided voters. 

An unofficial study by Washington DC based digital agency ‘imge’ during the 2019 presidential campaign tracked how each candidate used SMS. 

Although the method wasn’t exactly scientific, some of the findings were extremely interesting to any organization in the election game.

For us, one of the most interesting takeaways from the study was how SMS was used as a natural extension of each candidate’s personal brand and style of communication. From Donald trump sending direct sales messages ALL IN CAPS, to Elizabeth Warren’s focus on planning and preparedness.

While you may not agree with individual candidates’ policies and political record, we can see how they each use SMS in a way that helps to achieve their campaign goals most effectively.

Political text messaging is a powerful tool when used responsibly and in compliance with local laws and etiquette. This includes getting clear opt-ins from people before sending messages and in the US, registering with the Campaign Registry (TCR), which is the agency that collects all brand and campaign data in order to allow for transparency on the 10DLC network.

In order to comply with 10DLC regulations, any business sending 10DLC traffic needs to register both their brand and each campaign with the Campaign Registry. For each brand that is registered, the TCR will complete a brand identity check, which will result in either a VERIFIED or UNVERIFIED status. Only verified brands are allowed to proceed with registering a campaign.

With our 10DLC service and APIs you can view your entire inventory of originators (short codes, long codes, alphanumeric) – as well as provision and configure your 10DLC numbers. 

We can help to ensure the campaign you register meets all compliance standards and assist you with fast, easy brand and campaign registration to TCR.

This makes us a one-stop-shop for organizations that want to send and receive SMS and MMS messages on 10DLC. 

We cover the entire registration process in our 10DLC documentation including: 

Almost all of the election use cases that we mentioned above require knowledge of the recipient to be effective.

The best way of managing this information securely and effectively is with a customer data platform (CDP). This is a cloud-based software and database that enables you to unify all the information that you hold on individual voters that have opted-in to receiving messages from you.

The benefits of using a CDP for managing your voter data include: