US president Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is about to give small donors a new weapon when it accepts text message donations for the first time in history.
Marking the beginning of what could be a revolution in US campaign financing, the Obama campaign is wrapping up agreements with Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, US Cellular and T-Mobile USA to open the floodgate for donations by text this week.
In the coming days, voters are likely to start seeing a message on video screens at Obama rallies, at the end of advertisements or on fliers encouraging them “to contribute $10 to Obama for America, text GIVE to 62262”.
The campaign of Republican Mitt Romney has supported the notion of text donations in the past and is expected to follow suit.
Text donations can be made anonymously but are capped at $10 (€7.95) per text, $50 a month and $200 in total for one candidate or campaign.
Donations are prohibited from non-US nationals, under-18s or corporations, which could also mean corporate phone accounts. – (Reuters)