One Popular Way to Get Opinions to Political Leadership

Everyone loves emails and tweets to make political opinions known; however, the newest options are not the only — or best — methods to gain attention from political leaders. Have you ever considered faxing?

Faxing Can Have Surprising Benefits

If you think that faxing is passé, it remains a popular method of communicating with public officials, particularly when they have limited time to make major decisions that affect their constituents. According to one report, Senator Pat Toomey started receiving 600 faxes per hour when activists tried to keep him from voting in favor of a specific Cabinet nominee. Faxes are typically more noticeable to recipients, but there are other advantages, as well:

• Busy signals are not a major concern: When you call a phone line, a busy signal requires you to keep re-dialing until you get through. Faxes still require some form of phone line, but automatic redials generally eliminate this issue.
• Paper messages attract more attention: Faxes are more likely to arrive in paper form. These messages make a statement when they arrive on someone’s desk.
• Messages are instantaneous: Sometimes you need to get a message to someone’s desk right before an important vote. Do you want to rely on U.S. postal mail?
• Faxes are harder to delete: You probably already know how easy it is to delete emails and texts without reading them. Even faxes that arrive in digital format require a bit more effort to delete.

Fax Communications Are Not Always the Perfect Choice

From a practicality standpoint, you need a fax machine or service if you want to communicate in this way. Perhaps you don’t have a personal fax machine or want to send political faxes from your place of business. You may not want to pay for an online fax service, unless you plan to regularly communicate with your government representatives. just to get one message out. Additionally, paying a local copy shop to send your fax can get expensive if you plan to send political faxes out regularly.

A second concern might be how your fax is perceived by the recipient. Some staffers report that they are uncomfortable with faxed messages. In fact, one study indicated that faxes ranked below phone calls, postal mail, emails, and personal visits in terms of the power that they have to influence the politicians’ decisions. If you can’t get reliable tips from other activists, check out the representatives’ websites to identify the ways that might best gain their attention.

Finally, fax campaigns don’t generally make the news. A personal visit — or a group of protesters — might be a better way to get your issue noticed.

Faxing Representatives is Easier Than You Think

Even if you don’t have a fax machine nearby, you can send faxes via online fax service providers using any connected device. As long as you know your intended recipient’s fax number, you can use any method you want.

So, how do you get that number? To find your senators, start at the United States Senate website. As you might expect, the United States House of Representatives offers similar options on its site, and you’re likely to find similar websites with contact information for your state and local government officials.

The More Tools, The Better:

When you want to use your computer or another device to guide your political representatives to the right decisions, faxing may not be the only choice, but it’s certainly another option to add to your toolbox.