WP: On Capitol Hill, (e-mail) Inboxes Are Overflowing

[DeepModem Mom]

On Capitol Hill, the Inboxes Are Overflowing
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Monday, July 11, 2005; Page D01


....According to a new study, electronic messages to the House of Representatives doubled to 99 million from 2000 to 2004. In the Senate, the number of e-mails more than tripled to 83 million during the same period.

The result is a crisis of communication in the nation's Capitol. Lawmakers have to struggle to keep from drowning in the deluge while interest groups and their consultants scramble to find new ways to inundate them....(F)axes and e-mails have grown hugely -- e-mails in particular. Thanks to their ease of use and low cost, electronic messages are blasted out all the time by every organized group that has a cause to promote or a bone to pick with elected representatives....Four-fifths of (congressional) aides believe that the Internet has made it easier for citizens to get involved in public policy; 55 percent think the Web has increased public understanding of Washington; and 48 percent are convinced that it's made lawmakers more responsive to their voters.

Unfortunately, a lot of the e-mails are barely worth reading -- or at least that's what the people who handle them believe. Interest groups generate most of the incoming e-mails and a numbing percentage of those are form letters. Half of the aides surveyed are convinced that constituents aren't even aware that they've sent such identical-form communications, and another 25 percent of staffers question whether those communications are legitimate at all.

Almost all of the congressional aides surveyed said that they'd like to find a way to differentiate between interest-group e-mails and the rare, more prized missives that individuals actually write themselves....

***

Many legislators try to discourage mass mailings by regularly altering the e-mail templates that they keep on their official Web sites. But the e-mail generators manage to stay a step ahead of them....And once the e-mails penetrate Congress, staffers, for all their griping, usually take them into account. The survey shows that congressional offices at least tally and take note of the vast majority of electronic messages they receive, even if they are mass produced....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/10/AR2005071001011.html

[RoyGBiv]

1. Random observation ...

I'm amused at how the author uses percentages in such a way as to appear to imply objective authority to the opinions he's represented. "Half the aides" think that, or "25% of staffers question ..." I'm only half sure what that means, but I'm 99% certain that even a majority of staffers' opinions aren't even 1% correct, 75% of the time.

Or, um, something ...

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. LOL

Right on...the story might have merit, but it's damaged by the reporter's desire to place percentages and fractions on things that probably weren't ever measured in the first place......

[jojo54]

2. "staffers question whether those communications are legitimate "

They can have my name and address if they are in disbelief. It lightens my heart to know that all these form letters and such, are working.

[cestpaspossible]

3. I like calling instead

[FormerRepublican]

4. IMO they don't like ANY type of constituent communication ...

Considering the fact that snail mail now goes through irradiation and takes weeks to get there (and thus is stale enough to safely ignore), and the reps I've got don't respond well when I call and complain mightily about Bush's Social Security plan since they're Republican - well heck, you just can't say much to them anymore. Which is an indicator that a few are getting a bit too secure in their seats and need an electoral push. It's about typical that they would want to stop listening as soon as the election is over ...

[Fridays Child]

6. Welcome, FormerRepublican.

:hi:

[bvar22]

5. Phone calls (from INSIDE your district & SNAIL MAIL

are the MOST effective. E-Mails (unless specifically asked for like from petition sites (eg. Conyers) are WORTHLESS.
90 MILLION E-Mails can be deleted with 1 keystroke.

ALL hardcopy letters ARE OPENED and PROCESSED (might contain a check).

E-Mails might make YOU feel good, but are being deleted. Take the time to print out a HARDCOPY, pay for a stamp, and MAIL the assholes DIRECTLY. If you have a few X-TRA bucks, pay for a "Return ]Receipt Requested".

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Interesting: envelopes opened because they might contain a check --

you have to be right on that, bvar!

[MountainLaurel]

9. But . . .

Because of the new security measures in place after the anthrax attacks (anyone outside of DC remember those?), it could take a month or more for your hardcopy message to be received, opened, and read by your congressional office.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. That's true, and the disadvantage of snail mail. nt

[bvar22]

11. Snail Mail ANYWAY!

Go ahead and send E-Mail, but print out a hardcopy and mail it too.

[vard28]

12. From now on I will...

... call, email, AND snail mail my concerns to them. I figure there's 1/3 of a chance that they'll receive my correspondence. Of course that's if one of the 1/2 of the 25% of the staffers reads and passes on my submission with 73.78% of the other ones he/she deems authentic and legitimate.

Guess I'll be sure to sign mine as "Grandma" and maybe even give it a spritz of apple pie or chocolate chip cookie room scent so that they think I sat at my kitchen table to write it while I waited for my baked goods to finish in the oven. Sheesh... :rofl:

Thanks for posting DMM!

[DeepModem Mom]

13. LOL, vard -- great post!