Vote of Confidence

"As far as campaigns just using text donations to get people to opt in to message, I don't think it's a necessarily smart strategy," Hasen says. "It's a lower barrier of entry just to ask them to opt in to get campaign information than to ask for a donation."

Still, Obama and Romney might be able to attract more young people to both contribute and help get others to vote by enabling them to donate via text, Hasen says. But he questions how many people will actually do that for a political campaign versus an emergency relief fund for a catastrophe like the Haiti earthquake.