How to avoid getting election spam from multiple states after you move

Election texts, calls and ads from different states? No thank you

A Florida voter registration application is shown, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department in Doral, Fla. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis extended the state's voter registration deadline after heavy traffic crashed the state's online system and potentially prevented thousands of enrolling to cast ballots in next month's presidential election. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) (Wilfredo Lee, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

ORLANDO, Fla. – There are more ways political campaigns can reach out to voters including text, mail, social media, by phone and email and that doesn’t even cover it all but imagine getting contacted by candidates from all the states you’ve lived in before? If you’ve moved around, it would be a lot.

When someone moves to a new address within the same state it is an easy process to update your voter registration. Click here for links to all United States election sites to do that.

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[2020 VOTER GUIDE: Everything you need to know ahead of the presidential election]

If you’ve moved to a new state you’ll need to register to vote there. All states but New Hampshire, Wyoming, and North Dakota accept this National Mail Voter Registration Form from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Fill it out and send it in or visit your new state’s election office website to register. Again, look up election sites for all 50 states here.

Now, because voter registration is public record in many states, information including your name and party affiliation is available to campaigns to target voters for an upcoming election. They will often use voter records from multiple years, which could be outdated. To avoid getting mailers and more from candidates that won’t be on your ballot you’ll need to notify your previous state that you’ve moved.

In Florida, you can call the voter assistance hotline at 1-866-308-6739. You can also call your previous county supervisor of elections.

Another tip, if you get a text from any political campaign or an advertisement in general from your old state, reply “STOP" and you will be removed from that text list.


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