Has President Donald Trump been texting you lately? What about the Democratic Party?
If so, you are probably an absentee voter in a battleground state, like Michigan.
Partisan organizations such as National Republican Committee and Michigan Democrats have been sending out so-called “peer-to-peer” message to absentee voters.
Brian Fenech of Ann Arbor got one. And it went like this:
The text Brian Fenech received from Michigan Democrats. (Photo: Brian Fenech)
“Hey Brian. This is Nick with Michigan Democrats. Our records show you have an absentee ballot that needs to be returned. Can you put it in the mail today?”
What are these texts?
Texts like this are not new. Ultimately, one’s first thought may be that this is spam, and then delete it.
“Campaigns are increasingly using text messages to communicate with voters, and this appears to be part of that,” Fred Woodhams communications director for Michigan Department of State, told the New York Times.
Rebecca Mase, a clinical research project manager at the University of Michigan also told the Times that she received a text from “Pres. Trump” saying her ballot had not been submitted. It also included a link “vote.gop/30MI” which directs to Trump’s website, prompting one to enroll using their name, address and email.
Fenech was confused when he received the text from “Nick” at Michigan Democrats, because he had already sent in his ballot.
“I took this as an effort to get me to vote more than once,” he said in an email. He then spoke to his city clerk, who told him she didn’t think the text was fraudulent. A recent incident in Monroe led the county clerk to believe a “peer-to-peer” text was a part of a fraudulent phishing attempt.
How did they find me?
So how do these campaigns know if you’ve requested an absentee ballot?
Major parties routinely submit Freedom of Information requests (FOIA) to the Michigan Secretary of State, county, city, or township clerks for information about which voters have requested an absentee ballot. That information can also indicate whether the ballot was returned to the city or township clerk’s office. It includes the voters’ name and address, but not a phone number, according to Ed Golembiewski, director of elections for Washtenaw County.
And Michigan is not the only battleground state that has been seeing such targeted campaigning. Voters in Indiana and Kansas have reported similar texts.
What is known is that partisan organizations are spending big money in the “peer-to-peer” texting space, and pay a lot for voter data.
Republican National Committee is spending $3 million on the texting campaign strategy. The Michigan Democrats could not be reached immediately for comment on how much it is spending on the strategy or how it collects voters’ phone numbers.
How to stop these texts
But if you are not keen on getting texted by a random number regarding your voting status, there is one way to stop it.
Oftentimes responding with the word “STOP” is an effective way of stopping unwanted text message campaigns, even if it is not listed as an option.
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