The Obama campaign sending text messages to inform the masses is neither innovative nor grass roots. Hell my wife texts me to bring home milk after work. For the Drive-by media to fawn over this announcement as a sign of how well the Obama campaign is “in touch” with the “hip” kids is ridiculous. I would of been stunned had they not chosen this way to make a huge announcement. Even the liberal Huffington Post writes about the “texting” phenomenon back to 2004 and texting has been in use even longer than that.
In 2004, Rock the Vote began to build our mobile program, texting young people to remind them to turn in their voter registration forms, and get out to vote. Our innovative project signed 118,000 young people to receive political information and GOTV messages through their cell phones. Our daily messaging in the final days of the campaign included celebrity voicemails that explained how to find a polling place via the web or through an automatic patch-through to 1800MYVOTE1.
Earlier than most voter registration organizations, Rock the Vote realized that the best way to reach young people was by cell — the Millennial Generation aren’t tied to landlines.
In 2006 the New Voters Project conducted a study to test the effectiveness of mobile messaging. Sure young voters have cell phones–but are they more likely to take action from a text?
The answer is yes.
Young voters who received a text message reminder were 4% points more likely to turn out on Election Day.
A 2008 Rock the Vote study showed similar results for registration — young people were 4.2% more likely to turn in their voter registration forms during the presidential primaries if reminded by text message.
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