Traditional phones have long been the object of last-minute spending from campaigns, but as digital technologies have increased in sophistication tech players have begun to enter the space in earnest.
Phone2Action, the DC-area startup founded by Ximena Hartsock and Jeb Ory which raised some $4.7 million in a Series A round earlier this year, is taking advantage of the election’s final stretch to make a GOTV case for its Civic Action Center software.
It allows organizations to create a digital hub that pings supporters or members with text messages informing them of their polling location, early voting deadlines, and other updates.
“We build digital grassroots advocacy tools to connect people with their lawmakers, and [we] license that software to hundreds of organizations across the country,” Hartsock told C&E. “But in the past three months, what we saw was it's important to do something about elections to capitalize on the energy and power that smartphones have.”
A campaign or advocacy group can go to Phone2Action’s website, grab the code and then put it on their own site. Supporters then text a number and begin receiving messages in reply.
“They can brand it however they want — we’re just interested in getting more people to the polls” said Hartsock. “At the core of all of this is the power of the smartphone, which we didn’t have in the last election.”
The tool launched Sept. 27 and has seen a spike in use in the last few weeks, in part, because it’s bilingual.
Phone2Action isn’t the only firm trying out new offerings this cycle. The call-time app Ten More Votes launched this summer, and former New Jersey congressional candidate Alex Law in September launched a phone banking software platform called Partic.
That platform works on a computer or smartphone through a volunteer login. The user is then brought to a call screen where the numbers are auto dialed and they have a script to follow. The volunteer only sees one page of the script at a time and clicks through different pages as they enter the participant’s responses.
The idea for the software originated during Law’s under-funded primary challenge to Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.). He recalled there were “no good solutions for phone banking with volunteers.”
“The big difference in what we have here is that it’s so simple,” he said. “Even if volunteers aren’t incredibly comfortable with technology.”
Partic is data and party agnostic, and something Law plans to expand to include a canvassing application and dashboard after the election.
More traditional phone firms have worked to show they are innovating as well over the past cycle. For instance, the Democratic firm Stones’ Phones has touted its “voice capture” technology and a social pressure tactic it dubs “catch and release.”