Getting Approved to Text: The Compliance Wizard

Before carriers will deliver mass texts for a political campaign, they need proof that the campaign is real and that the people you're texting agreed to hear from you. The compliance wizard collects that proof in one guided pass.

Before you start: the hard prerequisites

The wizard cannot finish without four things, all of which live on your campaign website:

• A published Privacy Policy page.
• A published Terms and Conditions page.
• An SMS consent disclaimer on the form where supporters give you their phone number.
• A screenshot of that opt-in form showing the disclaimer in place.

Gather these before you open the wizard — they are the items reviewers actually check, and missing pages are the most common reason a registration stalls.

Why carriers require this

Political texting has a history of spam and impersonation, so US carriers vet political senders harder than almost anyone else. They want two answers: is this committee genuinely who it claims to be, and did these recipients actually opt in? Your Privacy Policy explains what you do with supporter data, your Terms set the rules of the program, and the consent disclaimer plus screenshot prove people knowingly signed up. Without that paper trail, carriers assume the worst and filter your messages.

10DLC and Campaign Verify, in plain English

10DLC stands for 10-digit long code — the system US carriers use to register organizations that send texts from regular phone numbers. Registering tells the carriers who you are, what you send, and at what volume, and it's what separates legitimate campaign texting from the spam they block.

Campaign Verify is the nonpartisan verification service for US political committees. It checks your committee against FEC or state records and issues a token that carriers treat as proof of political identity. PolitiFast handles both registrations for you as part of setup; the wizard just gathers what the reviewers need.

The consent disclaimer

The disclaimer sits next to the phone-number field on your signup form and tells supporters what they're agreeing to: recurring campaign messages, that message and data rates may apply, and how to opt out or get help.

Sample documents

The wizard includes downloadable sample versions of the Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, and consent disclaimer. Use them as a starting point, not a final draft — you must customize them with your committee's legal name, contact details, and actual data practices. They are working samples, not legal advice; if you have questions about your obligations, ask an attorney.

Once everything is submitted, registration moves to carrier review, which typically takes 3 to 7 days — see Why Is My Text Registration Taking 3-7 Days? for what happens during that window.