Note to politicians’ website managers: send constituents copies of the electronic comments they submit to their representatives!
Congressional representatives heard from crowds of constituents at town hall meetings during the August recess. How many more constituents used one-way comment forms on politicians’ websites to send in their views? How are such ethernet comments tallied? And why do the forms provide no record to the sender?
The standard form asks for address and email information and provides a box for comments. It doesn’t send any copy back once you’ve filled out the comment form and clicked “SUBMIT“.
Objecting to this one-way setup, I tried recently to send an email directly to one of my representatives, identifying myself as a constituent. The email was returned to me with this automatic message:
Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately, due to the volume of correspondence we receive, we are only able to respond to our own constituents. Constituents should go to HYPERLINK “http://www.—” and click on the “Contact Me” link.
I sent an email reply (which duly appeared in my “SENT” mailbox) informing whoever reviews emails addressed directly to the representative that I was a constituent, but I received the same automatic message.
Webmasters: change the system! Send constituents copies of the comments they submit via contact pages (email address is a required field, so this shouldn’t be too difficult).