Writing to Your Elected Officials

If you think your elected officials pay little or no attention to constituent mail, you’re just plain wrong. Your elected officials—from U.S. senators and representatives, to state senators and assemblymembers, to county and city supervisors, mayors, and councilmembers—are all in office for one reason: to represent you. They need and want to hear from you.

When a piece of legislation is being considered, elected officials look closely at their constituents’ opinions as expressed through phone calls, faxes, emails, lobby visits—and letters. Elected officials receive far fewer pieces of mail than you might imagine. Thus, elected officials assume that each letter they receive represents the opinion of many thousands of voters who did not take the time to write.

»Download  (57 Kb)