Today we are featuring Text Banking. Whatever it takes to win.
Interested in Text banking?
Text Banking Q & A (information and answers supplied by km)
The first thing to know about text-banking is that there are *a lot* of platforms and different approaches. If you are interested in trying it, you’ll want to be trained by the group that you plan to work with since procedures and programs vary and are different from the 2018 election.
Things that seem to be consistent:
- Most groups recommend using your computer rather than phone
- Your own phone number is not used, the organization will have phone numbers that texts are sent from.
- You won’t see the phone number of the people you are texting either
- Texting is popular, you might have to wait for training or to get assignments
- There will be recommended replies pre-loaded on the platform, though the extent of these replies varies.
- There will be some sort of information about the workflow/script – you’ll be told what the point is for the texts you’re sending as well as general ideas of what steps to follow. Again, format and how detailed this guidance is varies widely.
- You’ll get text replies that flummox you. :)
- There will be some way to get help when you’re confused. But, be prepared to wait!
I tried to text in 2018 and it was a total bust for me. This time, I really like it. I find it a lot easier to give good responses with a little time to think, and most text campaigns emphasize quality over quantity. Some of the conversations have made me feel good; I actually helped some people make sure they were registered to vote. Some of the conversations are unpleasant, though sometimes just letting people know they’re swearing at a volunteer who is actually human changes the tone. For me personally, text doesn’t get under my skin in the same way phone conversations do.
I’d recommend starting by figuring out a campaign or organization you like, then sign up for a training session. Larger organizations might have better training than some of the smaller campaigns, so you might want to start with a national or multi-state group, or one that is at least covering a whole state. If you can, look for a chance to shadow someone who is text banking, by screen sharing over Zoom as they do it.
In general, you’ll need to know how to navigate the texting platform and also how to communicate with the program organizers (to get texts and to get help).
Some organizations that text bank and places to look for more
- 2020 Victory (Biden/Harris campaign), texts with ThruText, uses Slack to organize and give texters assistance: sign up at the Biden campaign page https://joebiden.com/take-action/#
- Indivisible, texts with TextOut, uses Slack to organize and give assistance. Really great training but currently no space: https://2020.indivisible.org/textbank/
- Flip the West, texts with Spoke, uses Zoom to organize and give assistance: https://www.mobilize.us/flipthewest/
- Mobilize.us – filter by organizations or campaigns: https://www.mobilize.us/
- Biden/Harris & other Democratic campaigns: https://www.mobilize.us/2020victory/event/293967/
- North Carolina Text team: https://www.mobilize.us/nc2020victory/event/300728/
- Flip the West: https://www.mobilize.us/flipthewest/event/300769/
- Iowa Text Team: https://www.mobilize.us/battlegroundiowa/event/318272/
- Mission for Arizona (texts for Mark Kelly campaign): https://www.mobilize.us/missionforaz/event/267465/
- MJ Hegar Text Crew: https://www.mobilize.us/mjfortexas/event/311298/
- Or go to the campaign page for a campaign that interests you.
km
Happy to answer any questions! :)
WaterGirl
@km: Have you done phone banking? I have and I can do it, but I am not great at it.
How is this experience different from phone banking?
guachi
I’m military so I’m limited in what I can do. I’ve donated to more candidates this cycle than in the past but often small amounts.
I also volunteered to be a poll worker. It’s nonpartisan and I live in Georgia so it’s probably useful.
km
@WaterGirl: I have done phonebanking and I still do it. The scripts and the information that you try to record are similar. But it’s nice to be able to take the time to look at the available replies and pick a good one. (I tend to be very happy when I get answering machines when I phonebank.)
Also, you send out a bunch of texts at once, then wait for replies to trickle in. Typically you get ~10% replies – will be a lot less for some campaigns, and a fairly high percentage might be wrong numbers or people wanting to be taken off the list. Replies keep coming in for awhile. Most programs would like it if you stay on and answer replies for a couple of hours, but this is not going to take a lot of your time during those hours. For some groups, you’ll have ownership over replies to those initial texts for a couple of days or even longer. I have received replies a couple of weeks after the initial text – though that’s not common. But it’s pretty normal to get a reply or two the next day.
km
@guachi: Working the polls is great! There’s a huge need for poll workers this election.
WhatsMyNym
If you receive a text and you want off the list, replying “STOP” back seems to be recognized by the better software.
WaterGirl
@km: That’s really helpful, thanks.
km
@WhatsMyNym: Yes – the best programs (imho) handle STOP automatically. There are other things you can say that are automatic opt outs, but might require a volunteer to deal with, like “please stop” or “remove me from this list” or “delete my number.” Some opt outs vary by groups, such as whether minors are opted out or just noted.
Also, it’s always OK just to mute that text number if you don’t mind getting texts from a particular group sometimes. You don’t need to reply.
km
@WaterGirl: No problem. One thing I didn’t mention is that you won’t be able to reply from 9 pm-9 am, the texting platforms will lock you out during that time. (Varies whether it is based on the time zone you’re texting in or is 9pm Eastern-9am Pacific.) So, sometimes you’ll end up getting back to someone many hours after they replied. I usually warn people I’m texting with if I’m close to the cutoff time, or apologize when I get back to them the next day.
lowtechcyclist
Maybe I’m showing my age, but my first question is, “what IS ‘text banking’?” I read that list of bullet points, and a bit more past that, and had no freakin’ clue what any of it meant.
km
@lowtechcyclist: Sorry! Do you know what phone banking is? It’s like that, except via text.
Basically, campaigns have a list of people that they want to contact to ask something – like whether they are registered to vote. So each volunteer gets a list of people to send that initial text to “Hi so-and-so, this is km from org. Are you registered to vote in the upcoming election?” (or something.) The volunteer sends out all those texts, then answers the replies that come in. Some replies will be “yes”, “no”, “please stop!!!” or “this isn’t so-and-so” and some will be people who need help registering.
The campaign that set up the text bank will have a list of recommended replies available, but are usually happy for people to edit those to fit the conversation or personalize a bit.
Does that help?
WaterGirl
@km: Can you say more about the various types of things that are asked?
Like one day you might be tasked to ask about whether they are registered. But another day you might ask them what their voting plan is? And another day you might be trying to recruit more people to do text banking? Or asking them to donate?
I just made all those up – so I am curious what various kinds of things you would be asked to do.
WaterGirl
km, if you know of a few campaigns or organizations that are looking for text bankers, might you be able to send me a list of 5 or 10 with links, to make it super easy for anyone who is inspired by this text banking post?
SiubhanDuinne
I signed up for five dates in September to text bank with ONECampaign for Michigan, and will do a bunch more for local and state races in Georgia throughout October.
Here’s the code to link to the Michigan group if anyone is interested:
https://mblz.io/YkzL1C
km
@WaterGirl: Sometimes it’s a combination of those and you’ll end up asking multiple things if the conversation goes on. Let’s see, some that I know of are: vote by mail information, checking to see if they support a candidate (and then checking on registration), volunteer recruitment, and vote tripling. Vote tripling starts with asking if they support a candidate and if so, asks if they will commit to asking three friends to vote & support that candidate.
FelonyGovt
Just completed my first text banking session for Biden, sending out 300 texts (!) and I’m happy to answer any questions. It’s fun, a bit overwhelming, encouraging and as WaterGirl says, some replies are just flummoxing.
I hate phone banking and much prefer this.
lowtechcyclist
@km: Well, I knew what *vote* banking was, and in that mental context, text banking wasn’t making any sense at all.
But I’ve got it now. Thanks for the explanation!
Regine Touchon
Just finished three days of texting for Doug Jones here in Alabama. Had a positive experience compared to phone banking (although I am sure I will do it some time this cycle). Our big ask was if they had a plan on how to vote, if they knew that they could start voting absentee in person at their county courthouse beginning Tuesday September, and supply them with the info needed to do so. Like @km said, I was given between 250-300 contacts and had around a 10% response rate, most of them positive. I’ll be doing more over the weekend. I also signed up for a text training session for Biden/Harris campaign next week.
FelonyGovt
I should add that in order to do the text banking for Biden, I needed to take a one-hour training session, and there is lots of help available. Just to give you an idea of the volume of volunteers, I signed up for a session on Tuesday at 2 PM ET (11 AM for me) and there were 1,700 people in my Zoom session.
km
@FelonyGovt: Wow! That is incredible. Yesterday in the Biden/Harris Slack workspace they said there were over 2000 new volunteers added since the start of the week
Though – that does mean that people with questions sometimes have to wait awhile for help. I feel like I might have to become a moderator to help out.
WaterGirl
km just sent me a few more links to text banking opportunities, so I added them to the list up top.
thanks, km
CCL
@WaterGirl: Off Topic – and I am not sure if it is helpful any longer and Lamh36 has already resolved her voting situation, please be so kind as to ignore:
But if Lamh36 sees this, she should check with her local Registrar of Voters. In my state there is such a thing as a Presidential ballot which is for folks precisely in her predicament: Registered in one state but moving to another state in a time frame too short to register in the new state for the upcoming Presidential election. Louisiana may have something similar.
Basically – if voter is currently an active registered voter in our state but moving to another state (there is a window 30 days, I think) where the deadline for registering has passed, the voter can request a Presidential ballot (not to be confused with a provisional ballot) that the voter can use to vote here (in the state they are moving from). It’s only available for Presidential elections.
Someone may have already shared similar information, but I just wanted to suggest that a similar process might be available to her and to check it out.
gene108
Please check out: https://www.mobilize.us/
So many campaigns and other worthy organizations post activities on the platform. Once you sign on, you should get an email from the group you are signing up to work with the more instructions.
When I have text banked, there is Zoom call to go over the software and what the campaign is doing.
I find text banking more enjoyable than phone banking, because the response rate is higher.
Geminid
Biden did well in his last debate, with Sanders. USA Today had some top college debate coach rate the performances; the coach gave Biden an A, and his explanation of why was pretty persuasive.
Ruckus
My question is about how to take ones name, number, email address, mailing address off the lists because I’m way far enough left and involved enough that I don’t need anyone reminding me, telling me about candidates etc. Save the time/effort and be more effective.
Ray Ingles
So my number’s apparently gotten on a couple lists like this. Under other people’s names. “Willie” of the UAW, and someone named “Sanquanetta”. Unlike WaterGirl, unsolicited crap bugs me, even from people/causes I’d otherwise like. I’ve changed my vote away from candidates who texted me. (Within reason, to other sane candidates. I could get texts every five minutes from the Biden campaign and I’d still never come close to voting for Trump, of course.)
The main issue is that I’d freaking love to get off whatever lists these campaigns are paying for. Is there any realistic way to do that?
km
@Ruckus: You just reply “STOP” to the text. Some programs will take you off automatically without a volunteer having to do anything, others will still require a volunteer to press the right button to remove you – but it’s unambiguous. Don’t say “leave me alone” because that one is interpreted multiple ways. There are a lot of groups texting and removing yourself from one will not remove you from the others
Also @Ray Ingles: (Hope that works to tag both)
WaterGirl
@CCL: I will send that to LAMH by email. thanks so much!
WaterGirl
@CCL: email sent!
WaterGirl
@gene108: Thanks!
I just added it to the list Things We Can Do in the sidebar.
Election Action!
Political Fundraising
Taking Action: Things We Can Do
Voting Plan Illustrations
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I just hit unsubscribe to the emails they send me.
STOP should get you off a texting list.
km
@Ray Ingles: I answered just above about getting off a list, but thought I’d also mention that I don’t think there is a way to get off of all the lists at once. Groups use the public voter file and cell phone data from third-party lists. One of the problems I’ve seen a lot so far this year is confusion between family members, probably due to family cell plans or something.
WaterGirl
@Ray Ingles: Are you talking about unwanted email or unwanted texts?
Email: click unsubscribe on email from every organization you don’t want to hear from.
Text: Text STOP in reply to what they send you.
FelonyGovt
We were instructed clearly to “opt out” anyone who texts back “Stop”, “Lose my number”, “stop spamming me”, “take me off your list”. Other responses, like “no”, are considered ambiguous.
WaterGirl
@CCL: Lamh says thank you very much!
WaterGirl
Speaking of thank you… I want to extend a big thank you to km for not only the writeup but for the Q & A! thanks again
WaterGirl
I just typed STOP in response to a Joe Biden tweet, because I never give in response to tweets or email. I give when I can. Within seconds I got an automated “you have been removed” message.
Redshift
Sorry I was too busy with work to be here when this thread was more live, because text banking is my main activity this year. I hate making phone calls, which makes me feel guilty about not doing phone banking, but normally I do door-knocking, which makes up for that. No door-knocking in plague-world, so I’m glad they have text banking (even if they tell me that phone calls are more effective; you do what you can.)
OPT OUT is the other magic word, btw (though STOP works too.)
For the combined Biden/Harris/Senate/Congress campaign, we’re doing a combination of a bit of voter ID (identifying supporters) combined with various GOTV strategies and always asking people to volunteer if we get a positive response. (I’m terrible at asking people to volunteer in person, but it’s much more automatic in the texting system.) GOTV is funny now that we have the pandemic and much easier absentee/early voting in Virginia. It used to be that there were clear phases of voter ID and GOTV, but since we want everyone to vote as early as possible, it’s all at the same time.
Oh, also we sometimes are publicizing an online event and trying to get people to sign up to attend, that’s the other thing.
If there are any other questions I can answer about the national campaign, I’d be happy to. It’s been a very positive experience.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Thanks for that, Redshift!
Ray Ingles
@km:
I don’t have any family named “Willy” or especially “Sanquanetta”. I do reply STOP to the texts. Then that particular campaign stops texting me.
Then the next campaign says “Hi Sanquanetta…” I would really like it to be generally known that Sanquanetta and Willy don’t have this number that I’ve had for nearly two decades.
Redshift
@Ray Ingles:
I’d suggest replying “wrong number”, and only replying “stop” if you get another from the same campaign after that. Then that campaign will update their list to mark it as a wrong number for that person, and there’s at least some chance that will make its way back into the original source. Campaigns are trying to contact a person, not a phone number, so they’re motivated to fix errors like that.
This is emphasized in the training; for example, you’re told if you get someone who says it’s a wrong number and they’re a Republican, you should not mark them as a Republican, because that will end up as bad information in the record for the person we’re trying to reach.
km
@Redshift: I usually canvass door-to-door too! Spent a lot of time doing that in 2018 after I realized that I liked it a whole lot better than phone banking. Then I knocked doors again for weeks after the election to alert voters whose ballots had been rejected for signature issues. That was rewarding, people were glad someone was following up.
km
@WaterGirl: You’re welcome! Hope it helps a few people.
km
@Ray Ingles: Some groups are set up to correct information, so that is one option you could ask about, but many do not have that option available for volunteers. The NC group I was texting with this afternoon has set up their form to take in corrected names. Though that still won’t correct the bad data at the source.
planetjanet
Thanks, Watergirl. I am signed up for training on Saturday. It is good to get a head start.
Inspectrix
I have done phone and text banking with a local progressive organization. Phone banking seems to be a waste of time these days. I’ve had times with zero answered calls in 2 hours. Most people I reached in the phone were angry.
Text banking seems higher yield. Most recently we’ve done banking to let voters know to contact their state legislators about a policing bill. If they express interest, we text the link to have them complete an email. If they agree to that, we then ask if they will call their rep too.
now focus will be on tight races and get out the vote plus census completion reminders.
WaterGirl
@planetjanet: Oh, yay!