Is Your Elected Official Really Listening?

Oliver Wendell Jones asks: "In the past few weeks, since the Sept. 11 incident, I have tried to become much more involved with what's going on politically. It started with my sending e-mails to the members of the senate committee discussing H.R. 2500 (secure encryption) and received very polite e-mails from almost eveyone stating one of two (or sometimes both) generic messages. Not one of their e-mail responses included anything stating their feelings for or against H.R. 2500, so I have no idea if my e-mails had any effect." While I'm all for automated responses to take off the pressure in terms of response time, I'd at least expect aides to take care of these things. Autoresponses aren't enough, and when someone takes the time to write a Representative, whether it be snail mail or email, someone should respond. Of course, if they don't respond to written messages, try calling them directly and make sure an aide knows why you are calling. How many of you have tried and failed when attempting to ping your Rep on government issues that were important to you?

"The two responses I was able to receive were:

• They agreed that terrorists are bad.
• If I was a constituent of their state (i.e., I could vote for them) to please respond with my mailing address in their state (I did include my snail-mail address and I do not live in their states) and they would get back to me.

Of course, the impression I got after all of this, was that if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion.

I also sent e-mails (and one fax) to the Representatives and Senators of my state (Indiana) on this same topic and received responses similar to those I had received from the others (terrorists are bad, mmmkay?)

Last week, in response to another request from the EFF, I sent snail-mail letters to my Senators and Representative concerning the SSSCA. This time I received a two page, snail-mail form letter reiterating that terrorists are still bad, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with the SSSCA.

Has anyone had any luck actually getting their point across to an elected official, and if so, what's the secret?" I think we can all agree that terrorists are bad, but so are bad laws that interfere with our rights. Several of these are trying to progress their way through the House and the Senate and it would be nice to know how the Representatives stand, one way or the other. How can one cut thru the rhetoric and get concrete information out of those who are supposed to be your duly elected representatives in government?

Comments

Start locally

[b_pretender]

You can usually get a response if you start with your local or state representatives.

You can often call, write letters, or even stop by the offices of these local guys. At least, then you will have a feeling of having your message heard.

Of course these only effect state laws, not the national anti-terrorist or SSSSCA crap.

Reps

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked for a Congressman for three months as an intern, and I can tell you this:

You're right - nobody cares.

I filled out, entered, filed, etc. etc. etc., hundreds upon thousands of constituant letters, non-constituant letters, return envelopes, return letters, etc, etc, etc. Do you honestly think that anyone has the time to respond to over 10,000 letters a month on an individual basis?

While everyone's thoughts matter, there's just no way to be fair about replies. I've read - quite literally - hundreds of letters that were actually handwritten or typewritten from people with scores of different concerns. To be fair, however, all I was ever allowed to do was send the standard reply letter and trace the Congressman's signature.

It sucks, I know. I've written George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Dubya tons of e-mail, snail mail, etc. on tons of different issues.

I've not once gotten a personal reply - not even from a secretary.

It sucks, but when you get like 100,000 correspondances a month, you can't really reply to them without tipping the scales towards a few select individuals who you deem 'worthy'.

But isn't everyone equally worthy?

Oh well...just keep writing, maybe it will happen!

SMasters
maleboja@ici.net

Do they even check these?

[mystery_bowler]

I once wrote my state representative with my concerns about a recent commercial expansion in my area. The traffic was becoming more than a small problem, as people were becoming increasingly gridlocked and late for work and school buses couldn't get to their stops in time to get local children to school in time for their first class. The increasing number of people shopping in the area also brought more crime, as parking lot stick-ups became frighteningly more frequent and carjackings happened in the area for the first time.

A few days later I got a letter thanking me for my concern and assuring me that my representative was co-operating with other representatives to get new road projects going in the area and limit further large-scale commercialization (re: shopping centers) in the area. I was more or less pleased with this reply.

Imagine my surprise when a few days after that I got another letter thanking me for supporting my representative's co-operation with business leaders who wanted to expand to our area. The letter went on to promise that my representative would push for more commercial zoning, promising an influx of new jobs to my area.

*sigh*

They don't care about your opinion...

[gatkinso]

...just your position.

When writing congress, it is best to send an email something like this:

===============
From: You
To: Your Senator or Rep
Sub: H.R. 2500 - OPPOSE (or SUPPORT)

I support H.R. 2500 because (make it short).

Your Name
Your Street
Your City, State ZIP
==================

I mean, come on... do you really think they have to time to read your email and respond to every point? Just let them know your POSITION and how you want them to vote.

You can voice your OPINION at the local watering hole.

Send them a BlockBuster free rent flyer

[Delirium Tremens]

I had a very hard time explaining (not even convincing) my girl-friend that the new bill was bad. My point was not that I didn't believe the Government didn't need extra power to deal with the current situation but that, by giving this extra power, nobody can't be certain there won't be major abuses. Mind you, the girl is smart and usually open-minded, but in the light of what the terrorists did and could still do, she wouldn't accept any other view point.

So, I stopped arguing with her. I drove my car to the nearest Blockbuster and rented the excellent "In the Name of the Father", a real story where innocent Irish people are abused by British officers under a brand new anti-terrorist act. I got my point.

[... Movie Spoiler: 4 innocent Irish people spent 15 years in British prisons before being able to defend themselves again in front of a tribunal and having their case dismissed. One of them had half of his family put in jail with him, with jail time up to 14 years. His dad actually died in jail...]

From personal experience...

[ChaoticCoyote]

... I never expect a "real" response to anything I send my CongressCritters.

Back in my days as a radical right-wing leftist, I wrote dozens and dozens of letters to government officials, ranging from Bill Clinton to Bruce Babbitt (Sec. of the Interior) on a variety of social justice and environmental issues. Real letters, neatly presented, correct grammar, polite, all that stuff -- and what did I receive in response?

From Mr. Clinton's office, I received a very consistent set of form letters signed by a staffer, usually thanking me for expressing support for the President. Of course, they were replying to a letter wherein I'd strongly declared my lack of faith in his leadership. Clearly, they never actually read what I sent -- or if they read it, they didn't want to respond to my actual words.

Back then, I was in Colorado (damn, I miss it), and the best responders were Sen. Ben Campbell (who helped me with some DOI FOIAs), and US Rep. Scott McInnis. Other CongressCritters and the Executive Branch sent form letters that often had nothing to do with the subject of my letter! I'd write about nationalizing the workforce, and "Clinton" would thank me for support NAFTA (which, in its current form, I don't support!)

Ugh. Very disheartening. Which is one reason I stopped lobbying as an individual. Too much work writing a letter for no discernable affect.

Re:Hand-written letters

[fleadope]

This is SOOOOO true, and how many times have we all read the same thing, and on how many issues? As a measure of the high regard in which I hold this community, I
Lobbyists not only have money, but the ablility to leverage information in order to manage their contacts with Congress, and maximize their effectiveness. Can we put this information in tha hands of Joe Public? (And make it easier for us to be effective in communicating)

How about a client which gets updated with a small XML database of legislation, information about legislators (contact information, voting records etc...), and the ability to solicit lobbying from interested parties (I see this happening from a central server, so you as the user would have the ability to filter commentary from any unwanted source.) The client would allow you to compose letters and mail them off, track resopnses (in the unlikely event that there are any) and non-responses. You could also cross-post to forums like Slashdot.

Lobbyists and interested parties of all stripes could foot the costs of maintenance by buying the opportunity to interact and influence anyone who was running the client, and could even foot the bill for a bank of printers and postage machines, so you wouldn't even need to take a trip to the Post Office to mail a letter.

We could use a good database

[wytcld]

This question is being phrased as "Do representatives...?" This is as silly as "Do consumers...?" Given that we're individually experimenting here with our own contact attempts to individual reps, what we need is a tracking of results, by rep. Of X contacts by phone | fax | mail | email | Website | personal | other to representative R, Y were responded to personally | by form (appropriately | inappropriately) | not at all and the subsequent position taken by R was possibly influenced | contrary to the position urged in the constituent | non-constituent, contributor | non-contributor communication.

If we can collect the data, we've got folks hereabouts who can mine it, right? The solution is not generic, but respects the individual we're trying to influence | buy | coerce.

Re:Hand-written letters

[aengblom]

Hand Delivery

Hand Delivery

Hand Delivery

Really folks, if it's important, Mr. Postman shouldn't be delivering it. Trust me, when you come in screaming "Fire Fire Fire, we need wildfire control legislation" you get some attention. Non of this letter writing crap."
All the cool lobbyists are doing it ;-).

But seriously, if you're in the area of your rep.'s home or D.C office walk it in! Not only might you get noticed, but you get to see where your congress person works. Walking through the Capitol building can even be intersting

Multi level user moderated voting system

[pinkNoise]

"Give everyone wireless networked PDA's, and five days to vote on every issue"

Just what I want, I country full of uninformed people spending 10 seconds to decide every important issue.

So create some suitable real time trust network or moderation system, where intelligent suggestions and domain 'experts' get more influence. And tune the dynamics so that it doesn't stagnate, and so that differing view points are represented.

Also make it localized, so that citizens can select what to take an interest in, for example local neighbourhood / city / state issues, or issues dealing with their work, free time activities, areas of interest or expertice, etc.

A feedback type process to improve on the voting system itself could also be developed, where the aim is to learn well from mistakes, and improve the system while maintaining some original goals or constitution.

It's not easy to design, and will not be 'just' (but nothing save a single person country could be that), but it might be better than current systems for some things.. At least it is an interesting thought experiment, and something that would be interesting to play around with in an online world or game.

In America...

[linuxlover]

only woting with your dollar counts.

Example
I was at this fund-raising dinner for a Silicon Valley politician (Mike HOnda). Guys gathered were all tech-savvy people earning big bucks. So the 'donations' for campaign were from 100-1000 (max cap). So when an 'intern' came to collect the check I asked her about his stand on DMCA. She said she doesn't know and she can get back to me. I told her that I need to hear HIS opinions before writing the check and to my surprise HONDA himself came over to talk. He said he doesn't know that much about DMCA and will get back to me. The intern collected my business card (still no check). after about a week (to my surprise) I had this letter from him saying the fairness law is 'strectched' a bit DMCA and he will 'work with others' about this. I don't know if he'd ever do this but I mailed him a check b/c

• he admitted he doesn't know about the issue upfront and promised to do some research
• he did get back to me promptly. Which is very refreshing

THis taught me a thing. Here in America if you have money, you can be heard.

God Bless America :-)