TCPA, 10DLC, consent, opt-outs, quiet hours, and state texting laws, the compliance rules every political campaign has to follow.
Yes, campaigns can text voters on Election Day, with the same two rules that apply every other day: text only people who opted in, and send only within legal hours for each recipient's location.
Federally, automated political texts can only go out between **8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's local time**. Several states are stricter, and the window that matters is always the voter's, not the campaign's.
Yes. Volunteers are not exempt, texting a volunteer's cell with an autodialer still needs their prior express consent, the same as any other recipient. The good news is volunteers are the easiest opt-in you'll ever get.
Only if the petition clearly asked for text consent and they agreed. A signature on a petition is not, by itself, permission to text, the same way a vote or a donation isn't.
The short federal answer is probably not, and the leading authority points that way. But it's unsettled, and a state committee follows state law, not the FEC. Here's the actual picture, and why it's your counsel's call.
No, not legally, a phone number on the voter file is not consent to text it. The voter file tells you who to reach and how to target; it does not give you permission to send autodialed texts to those cells.
A factual, numbers-first look at what non-compliant texting costs a political campaign, TCPA statutory damages, real settlements, the state mini-TCPA wave, and the expected-value case for getting it right.
Some consequences of bad texting never reach a courtroom. They reach the voter, who decides you're the campaign that won't leave them alone, and tells their friends. The reputational death of a spam program.
Technically your messages might send, but they'll be heavily filtered, throttled, or blocked, and you're violating carrier rules. For any real volume, 10DLC registration isn't optional; it's the price of delivery.
Peer-to-peer texting is often sold as the way to skip 10DLC and consent rules. That's a dangerous half-truth. Here's what P2P actually exempts, and what it doesn't.
The TCPA governs every political text. Campaigns are exempt from written consent but must still have consent, honor STOP instantly, identify themselves, text in reasonable hours, and keep four years of records. Here's the whole picture.
A TCPA demand letter is scary and time-sensitive. Here's a calm, plain-language walkthrough of what it is, what not to do, and why your records decide the outcome.