Ping!

Americans are fed up with getting blitzed with constant campaign calls and text messages, a new poll found — as voters warned they might punish candidates who overdo it at the ballot box.

A new nationwide survey from phone number management company NumberBarn found that Americans report receiving an average of 13 political calls and texts per week as campaigns ramp up their voter contact ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.

Six in 10 respondents said the campaign messages are “excessive” compared with past elections.

The survey found:

• Four in 10 participants said they were annoyed by the very first campaign call or text they receive, while 69% reach that point within the first three messages.
• 72% of those who replied STOP to a campaign text said they continued receiving political messages afterward.
• 46% said receiving too many calls or texts from a campaign makes them less inclined to support that candidate.
• More than one-in-four said they’ve missed or nearly missed an important call or message because they assumed it was political spam.
• 71% suspected receiving an AI-generated political message.
• 86% support requiring AI-generated political messages to be disclosed.
• Only 10% said they are very confident they could distinguish a human-written message from an AI-generated one.
• Despite receiving an average of 13 political calls and texts per week, nearly one in 3 Americans don’t know when the midterm elections are being held.

“Trust may be one of the biggest challenges facing political outreach,” the NumberBarn analysis of the findings said.

“Nearly 8 in 10 Americans (79%) say they do not trust the accuracy of the information they receive through political calls and texts. Political calls and texts are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, but the findings suggest that more messages do not necessarily mean more influence, trust, or engagement.”

Americans who’ve had enough have taken drastic measures to stop the text-and-call blitz.

More than one-in-four Americans (26%) said they pay a one-time fee to permanently block campaign calls and texts and 57% stopped taking calls from unknown numbers.

In addition, 23% of respondents turn on a “silence unknown callers” setting and 10% turn their phone off or used the “Do Not Disturb” setting during peak election season, while 3% said they changed their phone number.

More than half (51%) of Americans said political texts should only be sent to people who opted in first. Another 20% say campaigns should send far fewer messages.

“As Americans grow accustomed to screening unknown numbers, blocking spam texts, and questioning the origin of every message — whether it’s a candidate, a scammer, or AI — reaching a voter’s phone is getting easier, but winning their attention remains the real battle,” the poll analysis said.

In September 2026, NumberBarn surveyed 1,006 U.S. adults to gauge how Americans view political calls, text messages, and other election-related communication ahead of the 2026 midterm election. It has a margin of error plus or minus percentage points.

NumberBarn is a telecommunications service provider specializing in phone number management, including purchasing, parking, transferring and forwarding phone numbers.