If you have a phone, and don’t live under a rock, your phone has been blowing up with text messages and phone calls regarding surveys and encouragements to vote.
Especially in a swing state like Pennsylvania, where the election could be decided, campaigns have taken aim at voters within the Commonwealth.
The same question arises every election cycle: Why?
Both Republican and Democratic campaigns have been reaching out to those registered in each party for what seems like since the beginning of the calendar year. Many people, including those here at Wilkes, are questioning the effectiveness of the barrage of text messages they have been receiving.
Faith Sekol, a senior early childhood education major at Wilkes University, cannot wait to get the election cycle to be through.
“Election texts are the daily text messages that have been blowing up my phone for months now,” said Sekol. “I don’t think I have actually read a single one of these texts. They are immediately deleted. I think in addition it also adds to the division and negativity of the election. These texts often tend to shoot down or talk badly about the other candidate.
“Every time my phone gets a text anymore, I get annoyed figuring that it is probably another election text. Voting should be an exciting privilege we have as Americans, not an annoyance.”
Junior pharmacy student Elayna Haring agrees.
“The text messages I received prior to the election didn’t have any kind of effect on my vote,” said Haring. “If anything, I found them to be quite excessive and made me not want to even read them since I was getting about 10 to 12 of them a day.”
Although the text messages seemed redundant at times, students and the majority of Americans had their minds made up when choosing the candidate worthy of their vote.
“I already had my mind made up on who I was going to vote for,” said senior business management student Tyler Hoedl. “The messages and phone calls I have been getting have been excessive, to say the least. I think I can speak for the rest of Americans in saying that a certain politician isn’t going to sway someone’s vote by blowing up their phone relentlessly.”