Political texting is one of the most heavily filtered kinds of traffic on US carrier networks. That isn't because carriers dislike campaigns. Election season brings a flood of messages from unregistered numbers, lists nobody consented to, and opt-outs that get ignored. If a campaign sends the way a typical commercial sender does, it often gets blocked when timing matters most: the week before an election.

This post covers four things that decide whether a political or advocacy program works: what carriers require at registration, how the TCPA treats political texts, what compliant message examples look like, and how opt-outs need to flow. We make Ready, so we'll also cover how our platform fits, including one step specific to political senders that you should do before anything else.

The step before your first political text on Ready

Ready's acceptable use policy requires our written approval before any account sends political, advocacy or fundraising texts. That covers voter outreach, call-your-rep alerts, petitions, hearing turnout and donation appeals. Email support@tryready.com before your first send, describe the program, and wait for our reply. Signing up and completing registration is not enough by itself for this category. The full policy is at /acceptable-use-policy.

Other providers may handle political review differently. Some require it at signup, and some won't carry political traffic at all. Ask early with whoever you use. Learning about a rule like this two weeks before election day is a bad time to find out.

10DLC registration for political senders

Every texting program on a standard 10-digit number needs A2P 10DLC registration. That means a brand (who you are) and a campaign (what you send). Unregistered traffic gets carrier-filtered, and political traffic gets filtered harder. Our rules overview for political campaign texting goes deeper, but the core requirements are these.

What's different for political brands

  • Political use case and verification. Candidates, party committees and PACs generally register under a political use case. Carriers typically require third-party verification of the political entity before approval, for example a Campaign Verify token for registered committees. On Ready, email support@tryready.com about this step before you register. Verification can add time on top of normal review.
  • Advocacy groups and 501(c)(4)s that aren't candidate committees may register differently, depending on what they send. Match the use case to the actual messages, or expect rejection and throttling.
  • Sample messages must match reality. If your samples say "volunteer shift reminders" and you send donation asks, that mismatch is a common reason for suspension. If your samples got rejected, this guide to the sample-message rewrite covers what reviewers look for.
  • A real website and privacy policy that states you won't share or sell mobile numbers or opt-in data.

What registration costs on Ready

Ready does not file the political use case or take a Campaign Verify token in the app yet. Email support@tryready.com before you register and we will tell you whether and how we can register your committee. For other senders, registration is in-app, with no setup fee. You pay the first month, $25, when you submit. After that the monthly charge is $25/mo for registration plus $2 per number. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days. Political verification is a separate step and sits on top of that window, so start well before you need to send.

Optional brand vetting ($79 Standard / $179 Enhanced, one-time) can raise your trust score and T-Mobile daily cap. Most local races don't need it. A statewide program sending tens of thousands of texts a day might.

How the TCPA treats political texts

There is a common belief that "political texts are exempt from the TCPA." That's only partly true, and the false part is where lawsuits come from.

  • The TCPA does apply to texts. Texts are treated as calls under the statute. Our plain-English TCPA explainer walks through it.
  • Political texts aren't telemarketing, so the stricter "prior express written consent" standard for marketing generally doesn't apply. Prior express consent is still the baseline for automated texts to cell phones. In practice, that usually means the person gave you their number for this purpose: a signup form, an event RSVP, or texting your keyword.
  • Manual, person-to-person texting has been treated differently from automated sending in past FCC guidance. How a platform is built matters to that analysis. Don't assume your tool qualifies. Get counsel's view on your specific setup.
  • State laws add rules. Several states have their own telemarketing and texting statutes, with quiet-hours windows and consent rules that can be stricter than federal law.
  • The exposure is real. TCPA statutory damages run $500 to $1,500 per text. Across a few thousand recipients, that is an organization-ending number.

None of this is legal advice. Compliance is ultimately the sender's responsibility, and a campaign lawyer review is cheap compared with a class action.

Our stance on voter files

Voter files and purchased lists are not consent. Our position is consistent across every vertical: cold contact happens by phone and mail, and SMS goes to people who opted in or replied. If you knock doors, call or mail a voter and they hand you their mobile number for texts, they're now a consented contact. Build the SMS list that way.

Political text message examples

Each example below runs under 160 plain characters with no emoji, so it bills as one segment. Each one also names the sender and gives an opt-out. Check FEC and state rules on "paid for by" disclaimers for your race, because the requirements vary.

Get-out-the-vote reminder

Hi {first_name}, it's Sam with Lee for Council. Polls are open 7 AM to 8 PM Tuesday. Find your polling place: leeforcouncil.example/vote Reply STOP to opt out

Event invite

Lee for Council: Town hall on parks funding Thurs 6:30 PM at Eastside Library. RSVP: leeforcouncil.example/rsvp Reply STOP to opt out

Volunteer shift reminder

Hi {first_name}, thanks for signing up to canvass Saturday. Meet at 10 AM, 412 Main St. Reply YES to confirm or STOP to opt out. -Lee for Council

Opt-in confirmation (first message after signup)

Lee for Council: You're signed up for campaign updates, up to 4 msgs/mo. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out.

What these examples avoid: a shortened link from a public URL shortener, ALL-CAPS urgency, and fake-personal openers like "Hey, it's me!" from a number the recipient has never seen. Each of those is a common filtering trigger.

Opt-out handling: where political programs slip

Campaigns often run several committees, volunteer teams and vendors at once. One supporter can end up on three lists. When they reply STOP to one, they expect it to stop everywhere.

On Ready, inbound STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE are honored automatically. The opt-out propagates across campaigns, so that contact can't be messaged again from the account. Opted-out numbers are refused up front and aren't charged. If you send through the API, you can pull the list with GET /v1/opt-outs and sync it to your CRM. That list holds only this account's opted-out contacts, so check GET /v1/opt-outs/:phone before another tool texts a number. See docs.tryready.com/api/opt-outs.

Other tools that help:

  • Quiet hours. Sends outside permitted local hours are held based on the recipient's area and go out later. You're charged only when they send. This matters for GOTV pushes that span time zones. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.
  • Litigator and DNC scrubbing. This screens out known TCPA-litigator and DNC-complainer numbers before you send. As a standalone scrub it's $0.005 per contact. As an in-send option it's $0.003 per segment. It's off by default.
  • Attestation records. Each campaign you send and each API send that attests consent records the sender's opt-in attestation: who sent, to how many, and when. That record is not per-voter consent. Your signup forms and CRM need to keep the opt-in time, wording and page for each person.

Worked example: a GOTV text to opted-in supporters

Assumptions: 4,000 supporters who opted in through the website and events, and one GOTV reminder like the example above (plain text, under 160 characters, so 1 segment each).

  • Messaging: 4,000 × 1 × $0.0075 = $30
  • Carrier fee: 4,000 × $0.0045, itemized separately on the bill
  • If you turn on litigator/DNC scrubbing for the send: 4,000 × $0.003 = $12 more

That's the Standard rate plus carrier fees. The all-in figure excludes the compliance surcharge until you turn it on. Replies bill like sent texts, so a 10% reply rate adds about 400 inbound segments at the same rate.

Two things change the math:

  • Emoji. Add a single emoji and the segment limit drops to 70 characters, so the same message becomes 3 segments and costs roughly 3x as much.
  • Volume caps. A fresh standard campaign may run at only about 1 to 4 segments per second. At an assumed 2 per second, 4,000 texts take a little over half an hour, so don't schedule your send for 7:55 PM on election night.

To be plain about price: raw CPaaS APIs and some all-in-one platforms charge less per segment. What Ready includes is in-app registration, the compliance controls above, a two-way inbox and campaign tools in one place. For more on choosing between options, see our roundup of texting services for nonprofits and political campaigns.

The practical takeaway

A political texting program that survives election season comes down to five habits:

  1. Text only people who gave you their number.
  2. Register under the right political use case, with verification, weeks before you need it.
  3. Make every message identify the sender and offer STOP.
  4. Let opt-outs propagate everywhere.
  5. Respect recipients' local hours.

If you want to run this on Ready, start by emailing support@tryready.com with a description of your program and wait for our go-ahead. Then create an account at /signup and begin registration.

Before your first donation appeal: our acceptable use policy needs Ready's written OK for fundraising texts. Email support@tryready.com with your organization's name and its charity registration, or for a candidate, committee or PAC its FEC or state filing ID, and wait for our reply before you send an appeal.