COLUMBIA, S.C. — Have you ever received a personalized political text message and wondered where it come from? How do they have your number? And how do they have your middle name?
Chances are, you have, or you've seen one of these texts before, a political campaign related direct message.
According to local campaign strategists, texts have been increasingly used in the past ten years to directly reach voters, usually 2-3 weeks before election day, like we had Tuesday.
They explain it's because in this day and age, we're always looking at our phone and that's the fastest way to immediately reach a voter.
Tige Watts is the president of Campaign Research and Strategy in Columbia.
"In 2002, it was largely based on residential phone lines and, as technology evolved, we had to start, we had to kind of evolve with it, and so that's when we started going more into cell phones," Watts said.
He explains in his 20 plus years of experience, he collects phone numbers and names by purchasing publicly available records, like voter registration forms or through whitepages.com.
However, according to the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, some of this information can come directly from a voter.
"We're handing that information over. It may be something that you sign up online. You think, 'Oh, I'm just signing up to petition against this issue or in support of something and you're putting your name, your phone number, maybe your email address and all those things in it," said Scott Cooke, director of communications at the SC Department of Consumer Affairs.
The FCC does oversee regulations on these political text messages though, stating that these texts require consent, with an opt in or opt out option.
"The intention of these rules is to make sure that the experience of voting is something that is free from intimidation, is free from sway, is free from those marketing materials. That just gives you as a voter, a more clean experience, you can look at your sample ballot, know who you're going to go in and vote for," said TJ Lundeen, director of public information and outreach at SC Election Commission.
According to the SC Consumer Affairs Department, you can always file a complaint with the FCC or forward a text to 7726 SPAM if you feel that a political campaign text message is violating the rules.