A message can leave your platform and still never reach the phone, and no one tells you. Carriers filter in the middle, so your dashboard says sent while the voter sees nothing. Almost every delivery problem traces back to registration, reputation, content, or list quality, and each one is fixable.
Run down the four causes
One, confirm your 10DLC brand and campaign are fully registered and approved, unregistered traffic gets throttled or blocked. Two, check your sender reputation, high complaint or STOP rates sink delivery. Three, scrub your content for spam triggers (shortened public URLs, all caps, 'click here'). Four, clean your list of landlines and dead numbers.
Watch the real metric
Track delivered, not sent. If delivered rates drop on one number or one message, you've isolated the problem, swap the number, rewrite the content, or pause and fix registration. Flying on 'sent' hides the failure until GOTV, when it's too late.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my texts showing sent but not delivered?
Carriers filter silently in transit. The cause is usually incomplete 10DLC registration, a weak sender reputation, spam-triggering content, or dead/unconsented numbers. Track delivered rates, not sent.
How do I fix low text delivery rates?
Complete 10DLC registration, reduce complaints and STOPs to rebuild reputation, rewrite content that trips filters, and scrub landlines and dead numbers from your list.
Informational, not legal advice.
Keep reading: Why political texts get filtered and Can a campaign text without 10DLC registration.