Congress Is Erecting E-Barriers to Shut Out Public
The good news is that members of Congress receive lots of mail from constituents. Increasingly, this mail comes in the form of e-mail.
The bad news is that some congressional offices think the high volume of mail is generated by automated technology known as "bots" rather than by actual constituents. So some elected officials now require constituents to respond in a way that shows a human being is writing the e-mail. About 40 offices are using a process that forces constituents to solve a puzzle when they write to their representative online.
This is a non-solution to the issue of large volumes of constituent mail, and it creates a roadblock to reaching your elected representatives. Lawmakers are finding out quickly how upset their constituents are -- Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of the 34th District of California has already removed her logic puzzle.
Write your elected reps (to make the greatest impact, please personalize your letter, the message provided is just a sample) and tell them you are against logic challenges and in favor of better technological solutions for handling e-mails from large volumes of constitutents eager to participate in the democratic process. If your lawmakers aren't now using the system, they need to hear that you don't want them to start.
Click on Learn More to find out if your lawmaker is using logic puzzles (if so, then a phone call will be most effective) and to find out how your letters written through Public Citizen's Action Network are being delivered.
Public Citizen is a member of a non-profit called Democracy in Action (DiA). DiA provides a technological mechanism for people to write to members of Congress, the administration, the media and more. The organization is putting its staff to work to find a solution to the challenge posed by logic puzzles that some members of Congress require online writers to solve. If your elected rep is on the list below, you may want to call the office because your letter will not be delievered until DiA has figured out a technological solution to the challenge. http://action.citizen.org/scorecard/.
List of Congressional Offices Using Logic Puzzle Web Forms as reported 6/21/06: US House Neil Abercrombie, HI 1 Gary Ackerman, NY 5 Ben Chandler, NY 6 John Dingell, MI 15 Bob Etheridge, NC 2 Raul Grijalva, AZ 7 Luis Gutierrez, IL 4 John Larson, CT 1 Marsha Blackburn, TN 7 John Boozman, AR 3 Henry Brown, SC 1 Steve Buyer, IN 4 John Carter, TX 31 Steve Chabot, OH 1 Howard Coble, NC 6 Mike Conaway, TX 11 Ander Crenshaw, FL 4 Tom DeLay, TX 22 John Duncan, TN 2 Vernon Ehlers, MI 3 Phil English, PA 3 Jeff Flake, AZ 6 Trent Franks, AZ 2 Elton Gallegly, CA 24 Jim Gerlach, PA 6 Phil Gingrey, 11 GA J.D. Hayworth, 5 AZ Joel Hefley, 5 CO Pete Hoekstra, 2 MI Duncan Hunter, 52 CA Bob Inglis, 4 SC Nancy Johnson, 5 CT Timothy Johnson, 15 IL Sue Kelly, 19 NY Don Manzullo, 16 IL Michael McCaul, 10 TX Charlie Norwood, 9 GA Devin Nunes, 21 CA Tom Osborne, 3 NE Ed Royce, 40 CA Jim Ryun, 2 KS James Sensenbrenner, 5 WI Clay Shaw, 22 FL John Shimkus, 19 IL Mike Simpson, 2 ID Lynn Westmoreland, 8 GA Frank Wolf, 10 VA Jim Marshall, 3 GA Carolyn McCarthy, 4 NY James McGovern, 3 MA Ed Pastor, 4 AZ Linda Sanchez, 39 CA Albert Wynn, 4 MD
