Handing your list to a texting vendor

Why Electbase doesn't text for you

Texting is its own business. It needs a carrier registration in your committee's name (10DLC), a sending number, per-message billing and someone watching replies. Campaigns that text well already have a vendor for that, and a website platform that bolted on a sending engine would be worse at it than the specialists.

So Electbase does the part it is actually in the best position to do: it knows exactly who consented, when, and on which page, because it collected that consent on your site. It turns that into the file your vendor wants.

If you have not read Collecting phone numbers the right way, start there. Everything below assumes the consent underneath it is real.

Where to find it

Open Contacts for your campaign and look for Text-ready list export. It is available on every paid plan.

If you don't see the section, nothing is broken: it means your campaign is on a free plan, or your account is still being set up.

Step one: choose a vendor, read the preview

Pick your vendor under Choose a texting vendor. Today that is Switchboard. Other vendors are built and waiting on a round trip against their real uploader before we offer them — we don't ship a format we haven't watched work.

Before any file exists, the panel shows you what the file will contain: how many contacts are text-ready, and a table of Contacts excluded, by reason. Every exclusion is named. Nothing is dropped quietly.

The reasons fall into three families:

• No texting consent. The supporter never checked the texting box, or later withdrew. Not a candidate, full stop.
• A number Electbase can't use. Missing digits, too short, too long, letters in the phone field, an unusual 11-digit shape, or unusual digit characters. The count tells you how much of your list needs cleaning up.
• Suppressed. The contact is marked do-not-call, or the number is on this campaign's do-not-call list. Suppression works at the number level: if one person in your database has asked not to be contacted, that phone number is excluded even if a second contact record shares it. Two people on one family phone means nobody on that number gets texted.

Duplicate numbers are collapsed to one row, so you are not billed twice to text the same phone.

Step two: download the file

The file is shaped for the vendor you picked: the columns their uploader expects, in the order it expects, with the phone number in the form it accepts.

It also carries three extra columns by default — when each supporter consented, the page where they did it, and which version of the disclosure they saw. This is your proof of consent. If a carrier or your vendor ever asks how these people opted in, that file is the answer. You can turn those columns off with the toggle if your vendor's import complains about extra columns, but keep them when you can.

What happens after you upload, and what we can't promise

This is the honest part, and it matters more than the count.

Electbase can tell you what its own rules did. It cannot tell you what your vendor will do next. Once your file lands in your vendor's uploader, they run their own steps that we can't see and won't pretend to predict:

• Line-type lookup. Vendors check whether each number is a mobile, a landline or an internet line, and skip the ones they can't text. Switchboard attempts mobile and internet numbers and skips landlines. Electbase has no line-type data, so a number we call usable may still be skipped there.
• Their own opt-out and do-not-call lists. If someone opted out inside your vendor account, your vendor will not text them again even when they appear in a fresh list. Electbase cannot see that list — which is what the next section is for.
• Their own duplicate handling. Your vendor may merge records across your whole account, not just within your file.

So the number the panel shows you is the number of rows leaving Electbase, and every rule of ours that removed anyone is spelled out. It is not a promise about how many people your vendor will text. The preview says this too. Any tool that claims otherwise is guessing on your behalf.

Step three: bring your vendor's opt-outs back

When someone texts STOP, that happens inside your vendor's system. Electbase never sees it — which means, without this step, your own list keeps treating them as a texting target and your next export puts them right back in front of your vendor.

Under Vendor opt-out import, export the opt-out file from your vendor (in Switchboard it's Export Opt Outs) and upload it here.

• The importer previews first, then asks you to confirm.
• It can only ever withdraw consent. It cannot grant consent to anybody, and it never creates a new contact — if a number isn't already yours, it's ignored rather than added.
• The withdrawal is permanent for that number. It goes on this campaign's do-not-call list, so a future import of an old list can't resurrect them as a texting target. That's the point, and it's why we ask you to confirm.
• If the file has more than one column that could be the phone number, the importer refuses rather than guessing which one you meant.

Do this after every send, and your consent record stays true.

One caveat worth knowing: not every vendor offers an opt-out export. If yours doesn't, this import has nothing to read, and there is no way for Electbase to learn who opted out inside their system. Ask your vendor whether they can export opt-outs before you rely on it.

What none of this changes

• Electbase never sends a message. No number of ours ever texts your supporters.
• Your consent rules don't move. The checkbox on your form stays unchecked and optional; see the consent article.
• The file is yours. Downloading it doesn't share your list with anyone. Handing it to your vendor is your action, under your vendor agreement.