Record Setting 5 Billion Political Texts Sent In October 2020

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RoboKiller, reveals over 5 billion political text messages reached Americans in October alone – an 85% increase from September. According to RoboKiller’s proprietary political message trends, these estimated totals mark the highest number of political messages sent in a single month on record.

2020 MONTHLY POLITICAL MESSAGE TOTALS

Month

Estimated Republican Texts

Estimated Democrat Texts

Total Political Texts

January 2020

244,130,290

34,840,489

256,704,967

February 2020

305,294,849

49,730,976

327,066,731

March 2020

382,100,207

71,044,376

417,059,916

April 2020

478,298,046

101,506,993

531,892,751

May 2020

599,034,632

145,108,954

678,705,990

June 2020

350,439,888

120,196,336

470,636,224

July 2020

747,533,492

222,164,300

952,550,431

August 2020

1,215,366,173

623,932,849

1,809,301,773

September 2020

1,869,531,967

912,630,892

2,734,926,097

October 2020

3,284,724,435

1,836,908,384

5,060,050,472

STATE-LEVEL POLITICAL MESSAGE TRENDS, OCTOBER 2020

In October 2020CaliforniaFloridaTexasNew York, and Pennsylvania residents were among the top receivers with a combined 871 million political text messages – 35% of the total messages sent in October 2020.

RoboKiller’s October political message trends indicate that both Republican and Democratic parties focused their political text message efforts on swing states and states that had early voting in attempts to influence voter turnout and generate last minute campaign donations.

TOP 10 MOST POLITICALLY TEXT STATES, LAST 30 DAYS

State

Republican Texts

Democrat Texts

Total

California

154,679,458

80,319,413

234,998,871

Texas

162,872,885

56,441,294

219,314,179

New York

122,269,882

61,336,774

183,606,656

Florida

100,205,582

38,793,128

138,998,709

Pennsylvania

63,342,398

30,953,368

94,295,766

Georgia

54,357,011

20,400,832

74,757,843

Illinois

50,815,972

20,987,823

71,803,795

Ohio

50,947,467

19,895,726

70,843,194

New Jersey

47,443,823

21,020,369

68,464,191

North Carolina

40,279,630

19,255,974

59,535,604

What is causing the explosion of political text messages this election season?

The uptick in text messages vs. phone calls in 2020 is reflective of the changing political campaign landscape and how parties and politicians are targeting voters. RoboKiller first identified a shift in June 2020, when political text totals increased by 50% from May 2020 and robocalls decreased 17%. Since then, the number of texts have continued to rise by an average of 30% each month, while political robocall totals remain stagnant.

These trends indicate that political text messaging is playing a critical role in 2020 campaigns, especially when it comes to fundraising. Nearly 80% of the text messages RoboKiller identified included a donation request to campaigns, Super PACs, or third-party fundraising organizations such as WinRed or ActBlue. With COVID-19 limiting in-person campaign tactics such as rallies or door knocking, texting has become one of the primary ways political campaigns are generating funding and voter support for one of the most contentious presidential elections in history.

Are all of these political messages legitimate?

Although phone scammers are always trying to take advantage of highly publicized current events like this presidential election, not all messages are scams – in fact the majority of messages RoboKiller identified in October were sent by politically affiliated organizations. Almost 50% of October 2020 political messages received by RoboKiller customers came from short codes, which are five or six digit phone numbers used by political campaigns to send and receive text messages.

However,  a legitimate source does not always mean they are wanted messages or contain factual information. Text messages and robocalls containing misleading information about mail-in voting and political candidates were another pain point for Americans this year. However, in recent months, RoboKiller has found that political texts containing misinformation targeted towards vulnerable voters in specific areas are happening at a lower rate than other election-related messages like donations or election surveys.

Will these political text messages stop after the polls close on November 3rd?

Given the uncertainty surrounding when America will have a declared winner of the presidential election, RoboKiller predicts political text message volume may continue to stay at elevated levels between the time the polls close on November 3rd and even after the election is over. Though no texts of this nature have yet to be identified, RoboKiller will be monitoring closely to ensure political texts are not misused to incite any action outside of donation requests and voter support following the official poll results.

Image licensed by Pixabay.com

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About Author

Leigh Porter's first love is to love people. Beginning her career as a neonatal RN was an obvious choice until life threw the curve ball to embark on a new IT endeavor. Pursuing this fresh career was a piece of cake with her resilient and steadfast character. Outside of the office, Leigh also diligently gives much of her time faithfully as a nationally awarded volunteer leader to a very dear to her heart organization.