Political Emails Are Here to Stay—Here’s How to Deal with Them
Election season is hard to ignore. You’ve got yard signs popping up everywhere, heaps of flyers piling up in your mailbox, and, oh boy, your email inbox becomes a battleground for political messages urging you to donate or cast your vote. In the past, you could simply shuffle those emails off to the spam folder and forget about them. But, this year? Things have changed a bit.
Google has rolled out a new verified sender program for Gmail, which allows politicians to bypass spam filters entirely. So, whether you want to see them or not, these emails are likely headed straight to your inbox. But don’t worry—there are still ways to clean up your inbox.
The new system, as Google describes, is designed to “help eligible, verified political committees in the United States reliably deliver policy-compliant and non-abusive messages” directly to personal Gmail accounts. But really, this essentially means you’re stuck with more political advertising than ever before.
Rules for Politicians
If there’s a silver lining in this situation, it’s that Google has established some ground rules for politicians using this program. Here’s what they have to abide by:
- Politicians can’t send anything that resembles spam, like unsolicited or repetitive emails. So, theoretically, if you didn’t ask for it, you shouldn’t be getting it.
- They must adhere to Google’s mass email guidelines, which require proper domain authentication and formatting. All emails need to have an “unsubscribe” link, per CAN-SPAM regulations.
- They must comply with Gmail’s anti-abuse policy, meaning no fraud, harassment, or other shady activities.
If more than 0.3% of recipients flag an email as spam within any 14-day window, Google can temporarily suspend the politician’s email privileges or even terminate their email program altogether.
How to Keep Political Emails at Bay
Just because these emails can slip past your spam folder doesn’t mean you’re totally helpless. In fact, Google’s guidelines provide a few methods for you to regain some control. Here are some strategies you can consider:
- Click the unsubscribe button: By law, every commercial email, including political ones, must have an easy-to-find unsubscribe button. Just hit it, confirm your choice on the following page, and you should stop receiving those emails.
- Get savvy with Gmail labels: Gmail allows you to create filters that can automatically delete emails based on specific keywords or senders. To set this up, open Gmail on a computer, click on the Settings gear icon, and then choose “See all settings.” Go to “Filters and blocked addresses,” create a new filter, enter your criteria, and mark “Delete it.” Voila—political emails be gone!
- Report them as spam anyway: If a political email does land in your inbox, feel free to tag it as spam. This won’t necessarily stop future mails from that sender, but it can impact their ability to send emails if many others do the same.
- Switch email providers: If all else fails, consider using an email service that gives you more options to block unwanted messages from the get-go.
Election season aims to reach as many voters as possible, but that doesn’t mean you have to endure every political message. Follow these guidelines, and maybe you can reclaim a bit of peace—at least in your email inbox!
