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How Do Political Campaigns Text Us?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With Minnesota's presidential primary just over a month away, many Minnesotans have received text messages from candidates.

WCCO viewer Sheri from Fridley already got two: one from President Trump's campaign and the other from Bernie Sanders. So, she wanted to know: How do these campaigns text me? Good Question.

"Campaigns care a lot about data, so they're doing everything they can," says Richard Carlbom, a political consultant with United Strategies, who has worked on Dean Phillips' 2018 campaign.

Many campaigns rely on what's a called a "voter file" – or a database of registered Minnesota voters, including names, addresses, birth years and phone numbers.

Voters are asked to give their phone numbers when registering to vote. The Secretary of State manages the database that any registered Minnesota voter can buy. It can only be used for political activities, elections and law enforcement.

"The Republican party or Democratic party would receive that information from the state and then they might augment it in purchasing consumer data information that's already available on the open market," Carlbom says.

Campaigns and parties trade and sell all different kinds of lists to identify potential voters.

"As a younger voter and someone who thinks younger people should be more engaged, I welcome the communication," says James Farnsworth, a University of Minnesota student.

Others responded on social media that they felt the messages were annoying or invasive.

Some responded to the text messages asking to be taken off the list. Carlbom says the campaigns almost always comply with that request.

"Most campaigns will respond to that and click on a button that opts you out in the future," Carlbom says.

That doesn't mean a name has been removed from all the other campaign's lists.

Carlbom says like door knocking or phone banking, texting is a new campaign volunteer activity. Generally, it's real people using their real names behind the texts. Often there can be several people at once using computer software to send individual text messages.

According to FCC rules, campaigns are not allowed to robotext -- which is texting through autodialing -- without a person's consent.

"They hope that it might lead to you volunteering for the campaign," Carlbom says. "The goal is to be as honest and forthright and transparent with the voter as possible."

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