Political texting compliance: 10DLC, TCPA, consent and quiet hours

A compliant political texting program clears two independent layers: the carrier layer, which is 10DLC registration with The Campaign Registry plus a Campaign Verify token for political committees, and the legal layer, which is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, state statutes and the consent behind every number on the list. Passing one does not satisfy the other. A registered program can break the law; a lawful program can be filtered as unregistered traffic. Every section below names which layer it belongs to and where the rule comes from.

Every organization sending from ten-digit local numbers through a platform registers its brand (who it is) and its campaign (what it sends) with The Campaign Registry; political committees organized under section 527 first obtain a Campaign Verify token, which unlocks the political use case and the highest sending tier. Campaign Verify is a nonpartisan nonprofit that verifies the identities of U.S. political campaigns, parties and PACs. Its token costs $95 per entity per two-year election cycle, initial review runs from minutes to two business days, and since February 17, 2026 carrier policy requires it for political committees on short code and toll-free messaging as well as 10DLC (campaignverify.org, read October 21, 2026). 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) organizations are verified against IRS records automatically and never need a token.

• ✓One registration per client committee. A firm running many races files each client separately, so one committee's history cannot sink the rest of the book.
• ✓The description, the opt-in story and the sample messages must describe the same program, and the live scripts must match the samples.
• ✓Registration sets capacity (how much traffic carriers accept), not delivery. Filtering decisions remain the carriers' and no vendor controls them.
• ✓Toll-free numbers and short codes follow their own registration and verification processes; see 10DLC vs short code vs toll-free.

Stages, timelines, costs and the rejection categories are on the 10DLC Quick Start; the exact field values a political committee selects are in the political 10DLC filing, field by field; the token itself is explained in Campaign Verify, explained.

The FCC's rule for campaigns: autodialed or prerecorded calls and autodialed texts to cell phones require the called party's prior express consent; messages sent manually can be sent without prior consent; political robocalls to landlines are allowed without consent, limited to three per 30 days; campaign calls and texts are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry; and a request to stop must be honored however it is made. Source: FCC, "Political Campaign Robocalls and Robotexts Rules," last reviewed March 5, 2025, read October 21, 2026.

The underlying regulation is 47 CFR 64.1200. Its consent rule (paragraph (a)) bars calls made with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express consent, and its hours rule (paragraph (c)) bars telephone solicitations to residential subscribers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. at the called party's location (eCFR, read October 21, 2026). Robotexts are treated as calls under the statute.

Consent is the fact that decides whether a number may be autodialed at all, and the record that proves it decides whether a complaint goes anywhere. A voter file is a list of phone numbers; it is not consent. Compliant consent comes from the voter: a web form with an unticked checkbox and the disclosures beside it, a keyword texted in, or a paper form with hosted proof. Purchased lists and implied consent do not count. Peer-to-peer programs, where a person sends each message, rest on the FCC's manual-sending position and can reach voters who have not opted in; broadcast programs send to the opted-in list and nowhere else.

• ✓Record the source, timestamp and wording of every opt-in, per number.
• ✓Show the five point-of-collection disclosures where the number is captured: who is texting, what about, how often, that consent is not a condition of anything, and how to stop.
• ✓Describe the real consent model in the 10DLC filing. A broadcast program filed as peer-to-peer, or the reverse, is a campaign defect reviewers catch.
• ✓Treat every STOP, and every request made another reasonable way, as revocation for that number across the whole program.

The full treatment, including what reviewers read on the committee's website and the privacy policy elements they check, is in Opt-in and consent for political texting. How the sending models differ is in Peer-to-peer texting, explained.

Every political text names the sender and tells the recipient how to stop. Those two elements are what carriers' registration reviewers look for in the sample messages, what the FCC's identification and revocation rules require in substance, and what keeps a program out of the filtering patterns that sink final-week delivery.

Twenty example scripts that follow these rules are in Political text message examples, and the turnout sequence is in GOTV text message templates.

Federal rules set an 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window, at the called party's local time, for telephone solicitations, and cap unconsented political robocalls to a residential landline at three in any 30-day period. States add their own hours and days for political calls and texts, and the stricter rule governs. Political messages are not telephone solicitations in the regulation's sense, so the 8 to 9 window is not the whole story; it is the floor most programs adopt because carriers, platforms and several states enforce windows around it. Sources: 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1) and the FCC's political rules page, read October 21, 2026.

Registration determines how much traffic carriers will accept from a sender; it does not decide whether any individual message is delivered. Carriers filter on content, volume ramps, list quality and complaint history, and no vendor controls those decisions. Anyone promising guaranteed delivery rates or guaranteed approval is overstating what the system allows. The compliance work that protects delivery happens weeks before the final week: registration under the right use case, list hygiene, a gradual volume ramp and content that matches the filing.

The diagnostic sequence for a program that starts failing, and the registration, ramping and hygiene work that has to happen earlier, is in GOTV week deliverability.

State statutes add hours, days, disclosure and consent requirements for political calls and texts on top of federal law, they vary widely, and they change. A program that texts in several states follows the strictest applicable rule in each, which in practice means a per-state send window and per-state script review. FullPAC maintains an internal statute reference for calling and texting hours by state and enforces the windows on the platform; a client-facing index of the statutes is in counsel review. Until it publishes, the committee's counsel is the authority on the states in play.

The TCPA provides a private right of action with $500 in damages per violation and up to $1,500 per violation where a court finds the conduct willful or knowing (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(3)). Each message can be a violation, which is how unconsented autodialed programs become class actions. On the carrier side, the costs are operational: a rejected or terminated filing, throughput capped at a fraction of the political tier, filtered traffic in the week it matters most, and pass-through fines for content violations that carriers assess on the provider.

Seven steps, in the order a program runs them. Each links to the guide that covers it in full.

1. 1

   Clear Campaign Verify first (527 committees)

   Candidate, PAC and party committees obtain a Campaign Verify token before registration: $95 per entity per two-year cycle, initial review within minutes to two business days (campaignverify.org, read October 21, 2026). 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) organizations are verified against IRS records and never need one.
2. 2

   Register the brand and the campaign under the political use case

   One registration per client committee, with a description, opt-in story and sample messages that describe the same program. The field-by-field guide shows the exact selections; the 10DLC Quick Start covers stages, timelines and costs.
3. 3

   Match the program to its consent

   Broadcast and autodialed sends go only to numbers with prior express consent, recorded at the point of collection. Peer-to-peer programs, where a person sends each message, may reach voters who have not opted in. Never describe one as the other in a filing.
4. 4

   Write the identification and the opt-out into every script

   Name the committee in the message, keep the STOP instruction, and keep live scripts consistent with the registered samples. Prerecorded voice messages must state the caller's identity at the start and give a telephone number.
5. 5

   Set send windows per state, in the voter's time zone

   Default to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time and apply the stricter state rule where one exists. Platforms that enforce windows automatically remove the human error.
6. 6

   Honor every revocation immediately, across the whole program

   A STOP reply, a request on a call, or any reasonable method revokes consent for that number. Suppress it everywhere the committee sends, not just on one list.
7. 7

   Keep the records

   Consent source and timestamp per number, the registered campaign details, the scripts as sent, and the opt-out log. These are what answer a complaint, a carrier audit or a demand letter.

Where each step is documented

• ✓Token and registration: Campaign Verify, 10DLC Quick Start, the filing, field by field.
• ✓Consent and disclosures: Opt-in and consent.
• ✓Scripts: Political text message examples.
• ✓Delivery and the final week: GOTV week deliverability.
• ✓Number types: 10DLC vs short code vs toll-free.