Web-based petitions work because they have the potential to channel protest to the most appropriate recipient, the sender's representative or senator, says Chris Casey, a Congressional staffer and author of "The Hill on the Net: Congress Enters the Information Age." That's key, since a recent study shows that most members of Congress don't pay attention to e-mail from outside the home district. (Many legislators don't post their e-mail addresses and some, like Dick Armey, have introduced elaborate forms to ensure that their only communication is with their own constituents.)

Meanwhile, other groups have discovered Web-based activism. Visitors to Families USA can sign a petition urging their congressperson to enact a patient's bill of rights. At the June 4 site (named for the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre), visitors can add their names to a petition protesting China's human rights record that will be delivered to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. And Toledo, Ohio, voters can participate in a movement to recall mayor Carty Finkbeiner -- although the site requires people to print out the petition and physically sign it. "Opportunities in this area are going to continue," predicts Casey.

To be sure, it can be hard to pin down the results of online activism. The Communications Decency Act ultimately passed Congress (it was later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court), while Censure and Move On didn't convince Congress to do either. Though organizers didn't achieve their political goals, they say they did have an impact. Blades of Move On concedes that the petition got very little direct feedback from Congress, but as signatures started coming in, it seemed to bolster the Democrats to speak up against impeachment. Move On also attracted $13.2 million in campaign contributions, and volunteers pledged to spend a total of 750,000 hours supporting candidates who oppose those who voted for impeachment.

Meanwhile, Congress is getting more receptive to e-mail. A 1998 Bonner & Associates/American University survey of 270 Congressional offices showed that 90 percent of the offices used e-mail, with most of the others planning to do so within a year.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who co-founded and co-heads the bipartisan Congressional Internet Caucus, pays attention to electronic messages. "He's put e-mail on par with phone and mail messages," says Leahy's spokesman David Carle. But not everyone is so inclined. When considering a policy position, most Congressional offices give the most weight to personal letters, followed by personal visits, telephone calls, faxes, personal e-mails, paper petitions, form letters, postcards and form e-mail, according to a recent study by OMB Watch, a nonprofit group focusing on activities at the Office of Management and Budget.

Basically, congressional offices don't give equal weight to preprinted, postage-paid postcards and handwritten, stamped letters, and they apply that same framework to e-mail. "People think, 'Why stop with my own congressperson? I can cc them all!' Somehow they think they have a louder voice if they send it to every member of Congress," says Casey. In fact, legislators treat such spam-like messages the same way we all do.

Sites that use the "click here and e-mail every member of the U.S. Senate" aren't effective, adds Casey, and "e-mail sent to everyone in Congress is likely to be received by no one." To be counted, send it to a single member -- either your own representative or a committee head responsible for a particular issue. "E-mail, done right, has every expectation of being received and responded to," he says.

That response will still likely come by regular mail. And just 15 percent of the Congressional offices surveyed use e-mail to keep constituents up-to-date on issues that may be important to them, according to the Bonner/American University study.

Casey is optimistic that e-mail and other forms of electronic democracy are increasing participation, saying that there's no indication that phone and letter contacts are going down. But he urges people to think beyond the confines of e-mail petitions. When e-mail doesn't provoke an anti-spam rage, or generate petition fatigue, it can give people a false sense of having done something worthwhile. "People end up feeling that they've had a voice," he says. "In fact, they've been misled."

E-mail activism actually follows the common-sense rules that govern most communications. It can be effective -- but only when the medium is used respectfully, by one individual or group making a sincere attempt to share ideas with another.
salon.com | May 10, 1999

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