Here's how to stop receiving those political text messages on your phone

If you’ve just about had it with all the political ads on TV and the unsolicited calls encouraging you to vote for one candidate over the other, you’re not alone. However, political text messages also seem to be crowding up consumers’ phones as Election Day quickly approaches. 

The text usually comes from an unknown number that sometimes addresses the consumer by name, encouraging them to vote for a specific person and sometimes even asking them to respond to the text with whether or not they can count on their vote.

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Examples of political text messages

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Luckily, there’s an easy fix to stop these unwanted texts. 

The best thing to do if you get one of these text messages is to send the word ‘STOP’ in all capital letters. You can also reply with the phrase ‘opt out‘ or ‘I no longer wish to receive messages from this campaign.’ Sending those messages should unsubscribe you from that campaign’s text message list. If done correctly, you should receive a text message confirming that you have in fact been unsubscribed.

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If you still receive text messages even after opting out, you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (online or call 1-888-382-1222) or the Federal Communications Commission (online or call 1-888-225-5322). 

The campaign may have gotten ahold of your phone number from your voter registration card, any public records or even a survey you may have filled out at a retail store. There’s many different ways they could get that number, so if you’re unsure how your information might be used, it might be a good idea to give your landline or work contact information instead.