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

[davester666]

...hold the paper against the person, then quickly stab through the paper with the pen

The paper acts as a shield to prevent blood getting on you.

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?

Re:Paper and Pen

[Tokah]

One of my state's senators states on his website that his pen 'n paper mail doesn't reach him for over six weeks because of security concerns. That's often after the vote on whatever you are trying to bother your congress person about.

Send them a $2,300 reelection donation

[hsmith]

And they will respond to your questions.

Re:Send them a $2,300 reelection donation

[Anonymous Coward]

Politicians respond to their constituents.

Please note "constituent" rarely equals "citizen" or "voter" in that politician's district.

True story: Shortly before this country was misled into a disastrous, expensive, deadly, and illegal adventurism, I called the local office of my US Representative. A human-like organism answered the phone and quietly operated the device after asking a few questions to identify me. I gave several reasons why my country should not engage in the seemingly inevitable but completely optional upcoming disaster. When I finished talking, it thanked me.

Shortly, I received a form letter
a) thanking me for expressing my opinion,
b) excusing the politician from giving a personal response because he receives so very many letters and calls,
c) acknowledging that many people have strong opinions about war,
d) explaining, in high political speak, that he didn't give a shit about what the little people thought and was proud to stand with his President.

Phone

[thestuckmud]

Many politicians are overwhelmed by email campaigns at the moment, and are paying more attention to phone calls. At least that's what my politically connected friends tell me.

Getting your email noticed

[93 Escort Wagon]

There are a few simple steps you can take to guarantee your email will stand out above the background noise...

1) Greet her by her full name - if you can do the research to find some endearing nickname only used by her friends, so much the better!

2) Mention the names of her husband and kids - show you're not like the other constituents. YOU take the time to get to know her!

3) Include photo attachments of her house (both in Washington and in your home state), her car, and her husband's car - again, this shows you care about this communication enough to put some time into learning more about her!

4) Describe, specifically and in the strongest terms possible, the issue you care about - getting to know her is nice, but don't let your message get lost in all the friendly banter!

5) In closing, be friendly! Mention that she or her family might run into you sometime!

6) (optional) If you can get hold of her personal cell phone number, follow up a few times with friendly phone calls! Script them, though - be sure to follow the steps I've listed above. But remember, she's a busy person; so call when she's more likely to be free - late at night is best.

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.

As a staff member for an elected...

[Anonymous Coward]

...I have a few tips.

1) We deal with crazy... a lot of it. Everybody who has an really angry, strong opinion about matters of public importance is reaching for the phone and calling, or cranking out an email whenever they can. Remember that if the issue you're calling/writing/faxing/emailing about is a hot issue, chances are people on all sides of it are calling to yell at us a lot. We end up having to filter out a lot of emotion and anger to get to what people's truly legitimate concerns are.

2) Make sure that you are contacting the right jurisdiction. I work for a local government of a large city. I cannot help you get federal law changed, or tell the governor to sign a bill. Stop asking, you're wasting both of our time. Also, I really don't care how outraged you are about the actions of the other government. If you're outraged with the one I work for, I'm happy to talk about it. Otherwise, sorry, not going to give you much time.

3) When you're sitting down to draft your correspondence, please try to focus on relevant info, clearly identify a solvable problem, and recommend a solution that you think will work. In this case, the poster is contacting a state legislator; there are three different types of communication that that office will receive: opinions, recommendations and requests for help.

3a) If your contact is an opinion, those are the highest volume and lowest priority communications for a response. Opinions are great and help the elected get a sense for where their constituents are at politically and help them gain a more complete view if the impact of their vote on bills. If you're writing to say, "please vote NO on SB 999," great, you're added to the list of "Community NOs" and you're a statistic on a report, but you're unlikely to get much more than an automated response or a form letter.

3b) If your contact is a recommendation, find out what staff member handles that issue for the elected. Contact the staff member directly. Call the capitol office, a receptionist will answer. The receptionist fields phone calls and will have a list of all the issue areas (Transportation, Judiciary, Utilities) that staff electeds are assigned to. Say these magic words, "Hi, I'm a constituent for Senator X and I have some thoughts on a bill, can you please tell me who staffs the Senator on Transportation? What is their email address?"

Write your email to this person and open up a dialog. If you don't get a response back, call them and ask to speak to them, at least confirm if you got your message. Be specific. "I read some information about SB 999 and I think that Section 333 of the bill will cause problems for me and my family," or "I received a postcard about SB 999 and I don't like the part that requires me to file with Agency Z every time I want to build widget X." I like to follow up substantive emails with a phone call, and then follow the call up with an email to summarize and conclude the conversation. I'm more diligent than other staff members, but when I have someone who is trying to make a contribution to the process, I at least like to hear them out, even if I don't agree. Don't be afraid to debate, don't be the aggressor. If the staff member is being hostile, just ask that they pass your message along to the elected.

3c) If your communication is a request for help, call the field office. They've dealt with it all and know whether and how they can help. Emailing is not helpful when you're making a first contact, start with a call and then follow up with emails.

4) Be nice. Your first line of communication is not with the elected or the "gov'ment" but with human beings with stresses and lives and feelings and you should treat them with the same respect that you would expect if some random stranger was calling you or writing you out of nowhere asking for things.

Stalking them with Cash

[MarcQuadra]

I've had much better luck finding out where they hang out (bars, usually) after a session, then I bring them a small check, made out to their campaign. Once that happens, they usually give you their -real- email address or phone number.

I bought a state rep about $50 in drinks one night, cut him a check the next day, and my ideas on Net Metering made it into the next revision of the bill. I did the same for a city councilman, who is now using a few of my ideas to save money.

The great thing about contribution limits, which are usually under $1,000 per-contributor, is that you get a lot of bang-for-your-buck for a $100 or $200 contribution.