FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- As Election Day approaches, cellphones across Florida will buzz as campaigns send huge numbers of unsolicited texts to voters with the assistance of new apps and programs.
Some people find the messages annoying, but political consultants say texting voters is the breakout mode of communications for the 2018 elections.
Republican political consultant Alex Patton said he and two of his friends sent 33,000 texts to educate voters about a Gainesville ballot initiative while sipping beers at a local brewery.
"It's highly targetable," said Patton, owner of Ozean Media. "It's inexpensive. Until we screw it up, it's the Holy Grail."
Not everyone on the receiving end of the text messages likes them. Shelly Soffer, 40, of Coconut Creek, said her phone has been inundated with political text messages that she never signed up to receive.
"I'm annoyed beyond belief," Soffer said. "They are presumptuous and obnoxious and borderline harassment. I never gave my cellphone number out."
Many recipients think the unsolicited texts are prohibited by law, but campaigns are using programs that operate in a gray area of a federal consumer-protection statute.
Andrew Gillum, who pulled off an upset in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, sent out more than 1.5 million text messages to 750,000 people, according to Hustle, one of four leading companies providing texting support to campaigns.
Gillum's campaign used text messaging to boost event attendance, chase vote-by-mail ballots, encourage early voting and get out the vote on primary day, according to Hustle.
Campaigns are using a new technology called peer-to-peer texting. The texts are not automated spam messages sent in bulk at once using random numbers. Volunteers must hit "send" for each message, but helpful features available in peer-to-peer apps allow a single person to ping thousands of people an hour.
Cellphone numbers are gleaned through public records and other resources.
Text messages are read more than 90 percent of the time, said Rick Asnani, a Palm Beach County political consultant who works mostly with state and local candidates.
The technology works in an era when spam folders filter email and streaming services shift television consumption habits, he said.
"You can't avoid it because you have your phone around you for the entire time you are awake," Asnani said. "A lot of times, it is right by your bedside."
A Section on 10/21/2018