Sick Of Washington Political Texts? Take These Steps!

I decided a while ago that if I see a YouTube ad asking for money to help your campaign (looking at you, president contenders), I will not contribute to you.

I've since started adopting that policy for every single text message I've been getting lately from candidates.

I don't even know half of the people who are texting me.

I have several memes saved on my phone that I use to reply to messages, and that was fun for a while (even though I know they didn't do anything positive).

Now, I'm just fed up and want them to stop.

Yes, they have at the bottom of their texts a way to unsubscribe, but holy crap, there are a lot of candidates, and unless you're pushing for term limits on any elected position, I don't care for you, and you're not getting my vote.

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How Did They Get My Number?

How did they get your number to text you? Well, if you are registered to vote, they have your number, and if don't know by now, they're using it and most likely sharing it!

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How Do I Stop The Robo-Texts From Political Parties?

Sadly, the federal Do Not Call list doesn't apply to political campaigns, but they do need to follow some FCC restrictions.

What you can do to stop/lesson political texts:

SPAM: Forward the texts to SPAM (7726). You really should only do this for sketchy texts, which nowadays could be any of them. If there is no "unsubscribe" option, definitely report it.

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Opt-Out: At the bottom of the text, it'll say something like "Reply STOP to unsubscribe," etc. If you do those, you'll usually get another text (annoying) saying that you won't be getting any more texts from them.

RELATED READING: Classic Bank Scams Are Hitting Washington Hard!

Depending on the campaign and the numbers they use, you might have to do this multiple times. Also, be wary of scams because texting back a 'STOP' just tells the scammer that the number is actually attached to someone.

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Filter: Your smartphone has an option to filter messages. They'll still come to you, but you won't see them, and they can make life a little less annoying. All this does is separate known and unknown contacts. This might be problematic with standard services that text to communicate, i.e., medical appointments.

iPhone users, go to Settings, Messages, and toggle the Filter Unknown Senders.

Android users, open your messages settings, choose Spam protection, and enable it. (This may be different depending on your phone's model.)

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Sadly, there's no simple solution to getting rid of all the campaign calls and texts. Do what you can, be cautious of scams, and hopefully, the election cycle will end soon (but I doubt soon enough).

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