With early voting under way ahead of the Nov. 3 election, many Texans are getting a steady stream of text messages from candidates and the groups backing them. Political strategists interviewed by the San Antonio Report say there is a reason: texts are cheap, and the phone numbers behind them are hard to shake loose.
A single message can cost as little as 1 cent, the report said, which is why campaigns keep sending them even though strategists disagree on whether they work.
San Antonio strategist Kelton Morgan, whose firm focuses on direct voter contact and mail, compared the texts to robocalls. He said they do a poor job of changing minds but are useful for reminding known supporters to vote.
Bert Santibañez, another San Antonio strategist who has used texting in local races, said the messages have improved and now carry graphics and video, making them an efficient way to reach voters, especially younger ones.
Where the numbers come from
Both major parties keep a voter file that campaigns and political operatives pay to use, the report said. It starts with public information collected when people register to vote, then adds details such as which recent elections a person voted in, which party's primary they chose and whether they tend to vote early or on Election Day.
The parties also layer in private data collected or bought elsewhere, such as email addresses, home value, income range and ethnicity. Santibañez said outside vendors add phone numbers and demographic details, and that statistical scores are used to predict things like partisanship and how likely someone is to vote.
