Getting your emails noticed

We are at that time when legislators start to finalize their list of bills for the next legislative session. Some of these bills are sponsored based on feedback and suggestions from the constituency of the legislator. As many of these ideas are sent through email, I thought it a good time to share my list of tips for increasing the odds that your email will be read.

Always clearly identify yourself as a constituent of the lawmaker to which you are writing and include your street address beneath your signature.

We receive many emails from people who are emailing all the representatives. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it makes it much more difficult to sort through responses from all areas of the state to find our constituent emails.

At times, mass emails are designed to make each lawmaker think that the email originates from a local constituent. These emails may contain text such as, “As a constituent, I request for you to vote against House Bill 1001!” Of course, the writer is a constituent of someone, so this statement isn’t incorrect, but it is misleading to all but one representative and one senator. The lawmaker still does not know if this is really a constituent or not and may disregard the email.

The following statement will be much more effective at catching the elected official’s attention: “As your constituent, please honor my request to support House Bill 1001.” An actual address placed under the signature of the writer provides a substantive verification of the writer’s claim to live within the district. Many elected officials are extremely familiar with their districts and upon viewing the address, they will quickly understand where the writer lives.

We also receive many emails from petition services which allows the sender to submit his point of view on important issues. Oftentimes these services provide the sender with a form letter to send. It’s much more effective if the sender forgoes the standard form letter and instead inserts his own text. A form email prevents us from gauging the intensity of the writer on a particular matter. We know it is a form letter because we are probably receiving that exact same letter from others. A customized message, in the words of the writer, tells us about the writer’s true point of view and is much more meaningful than the standard form letter written by a third party and sent to us in the exact same form by multiple other individuals.

There’s also an effective means to express opposition to an elected official’s proposals. Too often, writers take an aggressive stance which may cause the elected official to disengage completely from meaningful dialog. It is much more effective when opposition is accompanied by positivity such as thanking the elected official for his stand on other issues with which the writer agrees.

Even though the elected official is working for you, it’s a good idea to keep the lines of communication open by not aggressively pushing them into agreeance. Some of the most passionate writers fall into the temptation to threaten to vote or campaign against the elected official if he does not do what the writer wants. This isn’t an effective means for soliciting support and the writer who resorts to these tactics will likely not have the ear of that elected official on future votes.

I am also grateful for all of the many kind and encouraging emails which I receive in response to these updates. They are all appreciated!

I hope this article has been helpful in providing a few tips to get through to your elected officials.

Thank you for reading this article. Your interest and input are much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email Jason.Murphey@hd31.org with your thoughts and suggestions.