Ask Slashdot: How Can I Get Through To a Politician By E-mail?

wytcld writes "Sending an individually-written e-mail to my state senator resulted in an automated response saying that since she receives hundreds of e-mails a day, there might be no personal response, but please don't take that to mean she hasn't read my e-mail. So I contacted her again suggesting that was a pretty poor answer. Most of the e-mails she receives are mass mailings coordinated by various interest group websites. Why doesn't she put those to the side, I asked, and prioritize response to individual e-mails from constituents who've taken the time to actually write? Her response? She often can't tell the difference at first, so spends time drafting responses to the first instances of group e-mail spam, and gets diverted from responding to those who really write her. Are there tools out there which a politician can use to identify the incoming group-think blasts and put them to to side? It's easy enough to imagine sorting by repeated content or headers, if I ran the mail server, but I'm looking for packages already out there that a state-level representative, with no staff to speak of, might use to cut through the mess and prioritize communication with constituents who care enough about an issue to draft their own thoughts."

Comments

Paper and Pen

[Anonymous Coward]

These two devices solve literally every problem you are trying to solve.

Re:Paper and Pen

[Trepidity]

This does have a much higher probability of working than email does, but it only works with politicians below a certain level of prominence. You can definitely reach your small-town mayor by sending a letter by mail, and may be able to reach a mid-sized city mayor, state congressperson, maybe even your U.S. congressperson.

Sending a letter stops working once you're talking about writing to your governor, a senator, the president, the secretary of state, etc., though. They have people open and read their mail for them, and it mostly just gets sorted into the appropriate tally marks (we received n++ letters against the Foo Bill, next).

Re:Paper and Pen

[swalve]

I've done work in a state rep's office, and they do get a lot of mail. But as far as I've ever seen, there weren't stacks of form letters. They have a person who reads the correspondence and who answers the phone calls, summarizes much of it, and forwards the summary to the rep. So letter writing is probably the most effective.

I've never seen the email, but I imagine it is a nightmare. I have seen the faxes, and they are hilarious.

Re:Paper and Pen

[AthanasiusKircher]

Yep. Send an actual physical letter, or try a phone call.

Or, better yet, if you have a major complaint about a topical issue that's in the news, write something good and send it to your local newspaper as a Letter to the Editor.

I mostly received form letters in response to most queries I made, but a couple times when my letter to the local paper was published, I got personalized letters dealing with details of the specific issue from both my local state senator and my U.S. Congressman sent to me in response.

The more public the method of communication, the more likely you'll get a response. And choose a method that is less likely for thousands of other people to use.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Re:Paper and Pen

[icebike]

Exactly.

The story writer starts with the naive assumption the the representative reads ANY email, that isn't first scanned and categorized by a couple layers of minions. Then moves to the assumption that there is some trick that will get his topic before the representative's eyeballs bypassing all the layers.

Totally lost on the OP is the idea that their "special issue" is no more important than those from any other constituent, and the best they have a right to is having their missive filed and counted in the appropriate pro/con pile regarding any issue.

Maybe a succinct email speaking to a specific piece of legislation referencing (and quoting) detailed points in a calm analytical way gets picked out by a staffer as particularly instructive and gets passed to the rep.

Any rambling rants get nowhere.

Any threats will get attention, but not the kind you want.

But the "fer it"/"agin it" letters get counted and are automated replies, not necessarily in that order. They've had their say. And that's all they deserve.

Any foolproof way of getting thru the layer of flak catchers wouldn't survive being public knowledge for very long. Why should any one persons view take precedence over the that of other constituents?

You need to use an email attachment

[Anonymous Coward]

Scan and attach the big fat check you will be sending to her reelection campaign.

Re:You need to use an email attachment

[spire3661]

This is it. After Citizen's United, they finally took off the mask and said 'pay us or no representation for you' out in the open.

Send them a $2,300 reelection donation

[hsmith]

And they will respond to your questions.

Re:Forget it

[dwye]

This is one area where the spammer scum have ruined email.

Actually, this was ruined for email before there even WAS email. Robert Heinlein wrote a short book on how to influence politicians, and he laid out all the steps. Basically, the less you care, the less they care, so in the "good old days" a telegram beat a hand-written note, which beat a typed note; signing a petition or sending a pre-written message just makes the signer feel good, but these are completely ignored. An email is almost identical to the pre-written message that some group wants everyone to sign and send in; at best it is the typed message, except that you haven't bothered to expend your precious toner on it.

Secondly, if you belong to an ORGANIZED group, mention it. Even better if you are an officer of it, and mention that. Even a Ladies Sewing Circle member beats the lone crank; the member can convince her group to vote her way, while the lone writer cannot convince anyone.

Seriously, people, this stuff is obvious if you think about it.

Visit.

[daemonenwind]

Your problem is that you're engaged in insanity. Meaning, you keep doing the same thing while expecting a different result.

Why does it have to be email? You want to have an impact, but everyone has to come to you?
Fuck off. Seriously. You're not so important that your electronic musings should get special routing - and, if you check all the misguided posts about donations and big-money special interests, you'll see that they're all focused on making you important.

Your problem isn't importance. Which is why I call those other posts misguided. This isn't even a national figure you're talking about, it's a state-level politician. So, as a voting (you do vote, right?) constituent, you're actually important enough. You just can't expect every representative you have to come to your doorstep at a time convenient to you and ask what you want or somehow magically know it's YOU with an Original Thought. That, my friend, is your problem.

If the issue is important to you, take a day off and visit their office. They all have one, and it can't be all that far away if it's in-state. Talk to a staffer; they'll write down your name, address and concerns. If you're in their district, it WILL be seen. Or, if you call ahead, you might just be able to come at a time when your representative can actually sit down and talk to you. Or hell, offer to buy a drink after legislative hours. That is a human being in that office, you know; that sort of thing tends to work with people.

The big problem here is that, much like the occupy retards, you're not willing to get off your ass and engage the system. You expect the system to come to you and listen while you whine. That doesn't work for anything, anywhere. Wait for a town hall meeting and cuss at the microphone with the other cranks.

argument means nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

A rock-solid, well-organized, well-presented, and perfectly true argument for whatever position you want the politician to take doesn't amount to a hill of beans. "Rightness" is not the power that politicians serve.

Numbers and money are the only way to move a politician. If the majority of their constituency are clamoring for some oppressive and wrong policy, the lone voice of reason will be naught but drop in the ocean.

You want to be heard? Find a lobby that supports your position, and give money to it. Unlike words, money is real, and makes things happen.

If the lobby doesn't exist, form one.

If nobody signs up, bend to the will of the majority.