Every few months some well intentioned friend forwards me an e-mail petition. It’s almost always the “Save Public Broadcasting” one, but today’s was “Help Change Federal Law to Legislate Against Hate Crimes”.
My question is this: Do these things ever work? By “work” I mean, do they actually go to appropriate legislators and help shape policy? Or are they just the lazy person’s way of feeling as though they are being civic-minded?
Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net
I think they are right up there with saving pop tops for dying kids. It’s easy, it makes you feel like you’re doing something, but it doesn’t really have any effect.
“If ignorance were corn flakes, you’d be General Mills.”
Cecil Adams
The Straight Dope
I believe that some legislators will have aides that go through and count the number of letters on a certain topic, tallying the pros and the cons.
E-mail petitions, in my opinion, are doubtful, because they can be floating around for years and might no longer be relevant. Every petition should have a “stop date” and/or some other date on it. If they don’t, I don’t bother signing it.
A “real” letter is probably taken more seriously by most elected officials than an e-mail message. Any schmoe can dash off an e-mail in an idle moment; sending a real letter shows that you care enough about the issue to spend 33 cents on it and take the time to find the correct address, write down your thoughts, address the envelope and drop it in the mail.
Also, consider that a petition with the names “Mr. John Jones” and “Dr. Frederic Smith” on it, from that particular official’s district, probably is going to be given a bit more weight than an email petition from who knows where containing “spazmeister@hotmail.com” and “k00ld00d@yahoo.com”.
If I were an elected official, I think I’d use the rule of thumb that anyone who couldn’t be bothered to take the time to send a letter in the mail probably couldn’t be bothered to take the time to vote, and therefore could safely be ignored. (Why yes, I AM cynical, thank you for noticing.)
Hmm, when I’ve sent email to my elected officials, I’ve had to take the time to find out what their email address is, just as I would have for their snail mail address.
And I always sign my complete name, with my home address, so that they know I am indeed a constituent. And I remind them that I vote!
-Melin
I do want to differentiate between private email sent to a legislator, and these long petitions.
My personal opinion is that an independent email sent from me to my representative is pretty cool and moderately “counts”. But these big long lists of hundreds of names where all the person has to do is sign their name and city.
Heck, now that I think of it, if I want to help pass federal law doesn’t this need to go to my rep in Congress anyway?
I mean, they were just going to forward this to the president. He doesn’t make the dang laws!
Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net
I would guess that they are pretty much ignored. I’ve helped collect signatures for petitions for ballot initiatives and referenda here in Ohio, and the rules are pretty specific concerning how people must sign, who is eligiable, and what constitutes a valid, verifiable signature. E-mail petitions are about a zillion miles away from meeting any of the criteria.
“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather
My question is -
Who’s responsible for sending the petition on to the elected official?!?
Most of these petitions I’ve received simply instruct me to add my name to the list and to send it on to my friends, who then add their name and send it on the their friends, and so on and so on. How does the last person know that he or she is indeed the last person and that he or she is responsible for sending it on to their representative - who in all probability is not my representative anyway?
Suffice it to say that these are a waste of time.
If I recall, petitions have to be signed by REGISTERED voters.
Its way too easy to get emails & put them into a petition. For example, with a program like Cherry Picker (?) you could take the emails from everyone who posted on the Straight Dope without their asking & make a petition. sigh.
pldennison, I beg to differ. Of course there are more stringent requirements when you’re trying to put something on the ballot. In that case someone needs to make sure that the people are registered visits.
But if representative X receives hundreds of letters saying “vote No on bill 32.3”, and ten letters saying “vote Yes on proposition 32.3”, I would imagine she will think that more people in her district are against bill 32, and that might influence the decision of someone who’s on the fence or doesn’t have strong feelings about the subject. Same thing if you get back 20 petitions with 100 signatures vs. 2 petitions with 10 signatures. I have seen several newspaper interviews where some elected officials, to justify their position, have said “Well the phone calls coming into my office are 20 to 1 in favour of my decision.”
Is it the most efficient way? Maybe not. But it’s something easily done by any citizen. Not all of this have the time (or the connections) to get a one-on-one meeting with an elected official, or to start an initiative drive.
The part you have to guard against with e-mail petitions (and I’ve seen this happen) is when a petition is circulating to the wrong addressee (e.g. asking the governer of California to vote on a U.S. senate bill) or when the petition is no longer valid (e.g. asking for help in defeating bill S1.2, when bill S1.2 has already been defeated.)
Quand les talons claquent, l’esprit se vide.
Maréchal Lyautey
Petitions can be signed by anyone, unless they are being used to qualify someone to appear on a ballot or something.
Concerning internet petitions, they are pretty much ignored. Most - but not all - legislators ignore or appropriately forward any correspondence to the author’s elected representative. A petition “signed” by people all across the country (or world) is very easily shoved off into oblivion.
A considerable number of congressional offices sort their email based on the inclusion of a return address, ie, no return address or return address from different constituency, the email just gets deleted.
Similarly, form letters often get light treatment.
My advice: if you want to write your legislator, forget email, the suggested texts given by AARP/NRA/Sierra Club/MUFON/etc., write neatly, and mail it.
veer…
Well, there’s some doubt about whether a President ought to be making laws, but that’s what the effect of use of the Executive Order amounts to.
veer back…
Yeah, I get’em all the time. They are junk for all the reasons pointed out - no verification, no responsibilty for getting results to the right place, easy to generate fake responses, blah, blah, blah…
I get them from the same people who (in earnest) send me virus hoax alerts, e-mail tracking deals, etc.
Junk.
Not as bad, though, as the faxes we get regulary that are seeking our opinion on some hot button issue (usually synced with the news) and giving two (pro/con) phone numbers to call to CAST YOUR VOTE! 900 numbers. The results of these polls go nowhere but the proprietors’ bank accounts.
And may I take the time to point out that the OP was my 100th post?
Thank you, thank you.
Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net
Keep’em coming, dear.