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Handling Email Overload in Congress
DedHerring writes "A piece from Roll Call, a newspaper on the hill, that describes how Congressional offices are working to identify which of the many bulk emails received are actually from constituents of their district. Worth a read to know if the click-through online petition you participate in is ever going to be considered by the recipient legislator. Confirms many posts in Slashdot on this topic."
Put your full name and your ZIP code if it is really your rep. The aides will recognize the zip as valid info, and a full name will lend credence enough to get the item past the first sweep and under a humans eye's.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Right now the best way to contact your Senators and Congressman is via phone. Postal mail sent to your represenatives DC offices is subject to long delays. From Senator Maria Cantwell's site:
"Mail service to my Washington, D.C. Senate office has resumed, but will be slowed down. It will take about three weeks for your letter to be delivered. I ask that you be patient with written correspondence to and from my office, and when possible use alternatives such as email, phone, or fax. Thanks."
Another alternative is to send postal mail to your representatives' district or state offices.
Happy Fun Ball is for external use only.
The "Write Your Representative" service can be accessed at http://www.house.gov/writerep/.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I worked in a Congressional office back in the day, and your opinion doesn't count if you're not (a) a constituent in the congressional district, (b) a leader who can affect opinion in the district (e.g. Billy Graham), or (c) a personally respected acquaintance of the Member (which could include a donor). Don't get cynical or indignant about being ignored if you're not in the district; respect the congressman for focusing on the folks back home.
As has been said already, your opinion carries more weight if you go to more trouble to express it. Arrange an appointment with the congressman and he'll listen to you. Meet an aide and the congressman will get a memo on what you had to say. Send a letter from his district and your opinion will at least get tallied. If it's not a form letter, there's a good chance your congressman will read it, otherwise an aide will see it. Send an e-mail and you might get a response if you're from the district. If you don't show you're from the district, you probably won't be counted.
If you really care about an issue, don't think you've done your part by clicking a button on a website. Bundle your opinion with others THAT COUNT. Circulate a local petition, or get your civic association or student assembly or local professional organization chapter to pass a resolution, or write an op-ed for your local paper. "Think globally, act locally," is advice learned from experience.
Yes, have multiple times. You can make an apt., or you can catch him/her on the campaign trail.
Yes, he could make an apt just like anyone else.
"I told you a million times not to exaggerate!"
I cringe every time someone says that sending a fax or a snail mail to one's representative or senator is more effective than sending an email. Guess what? It's really not. Why trust me? Because I worked in Congress.
Here's what happens to your letters in most congressional offices: First, an intern or secretary gets the mail and sorts it into groups based on the contents of each letter. Many letters are from actual groups that represent one lobby or another: those get sent to various legislative assistants who can send some specifc info to each group.
Then, there is the mail from constituents, much of which consists of generic postcards...AARP postcards exceeded by far any other postcard received by the office in which I worked. Those old people sure know how to send in those damn postcards! These get counted up each day, but don't merit a personal response. More rare are actual letters from constituents. These go to a secretary or an intern who basically works off of this template:
Dear [name],
Thank you for writing about [issue]. I appreciate your input on [issue]. [Stance on issue].
Sincerely, [signature of elected official produced using a laser printer or a stamp]
Then, there is stuff marked "personal," which goes to the congressperson's personal secretary. I think the congressperson might actually read some of this, but don't try marking stuff personal when it's really just some political bullshit. That probably breaks some law, or, at the very least gets you on the congressperson's bad side.
So, you want to know what really works? One way to go is "voting with your dollars," but c'mon, you can't possibly have more money than any of the real lobbying groups that bombard your congressperson with propoganda (read: $$$) day after day. The other way is to set up an appointment to actually speak, face to face, with your congressperson. It actually happens. This may require you to join some sort of group, but if you believe strongly enough in a cause, it's worth it to get over your fear of public speaking and attempt to talk to the person who supposedly represents you. That is the only way you stand a chance of not being just another letter ignored.
PS, I don't give a fuck how you mod this, but sometimes, the truth hurts.
I just completed a 10 week internship in a Congressional office where they found my technically savvy to be of a great deal of use to their office. They had we working on website and streamlining their mail system after just a couple of weeks on the job. So, here are my couple of observations from those weeks.
1) e-mails are just as important as phone calls. An office gets a phone call with someone saying "I opposed issue X", they tell that person they will "pass the comment on to the Congressperson" and if your lucky, they will tally the support on a sheet. The same goes with e-mail, except that you get a nice little letter that will actually explain the Congresspersons position. Granted it will be form letter, but it usually is enough to know where the rep stands.
2) being a constituent is EVERYTHING. Most offices in the House use something call "IQ", an awful little program written to make full use of IE activeX capabilities. IQ, for all of its failings, has an incredible address checker, and can determine if a letter is from the within their district or not. But you have to get the address to them in the right format, which means using their webform submissions... NO public e-mails.
3) I really can't stress this point enough... a constituent is a constituent, whether it be phone, fax, mail, or carrier pigeon. Any office that wants to be reelected gives every piece the same effort, because people who write are people who vote. The best way to be ignored is to say "if I e-mail it will just be processed by some staffer, so I won't bother." Everything is processed by a staffer (unless you're a personal friend), so get out their and send an e-mail. Personalize it if you wish, but it really doesn't matter... they just want to know who you are and what you think your representatives stance on the issues ought to be. Never forget, these people pay money for polling data that you are giving them for free. They are happy to receive it.
I hope this helps a bit in everyones political adventures.
Only 120 characters... who can summarize their entire world understanding in 120 characters?!
Go to a campaign appearance by your Rep. Find out the name of the aide who handles the issues you're interested in. Email directly to this aide. The format is firstname.lastname@mail.house.gov
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary