[Discuss] [OT] political petitions

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Derek Martin wrote:
> Dan Geer wrote:
>> ...words from the Mayor of "our fair city":
>>
>>   You're right, but irrelevant; you don't deliver any votes.
>>
>> That was educational and factual.  Petitions, to be effective,
>> need to be like tracer bullets for artillery to follow.  
> 
> My impression is that these petitions "don't deliver any votes."  Or,
> more importantly, they are perceived by politicians as such.

We're straying far afield from BLU here, so I tagged this off topic.

There are, however, some things an organization could do to make a
political petition more impactful, such as:

1. The wording of the petition is not to say you are for or against some
issue. Instead it is structured as if you are signing a pledge to vote
against the named representative if they don't support the position
being advocated for by the petition (or for, if they do).

2. The organization administering the petition needs to commit to inform
the petition signers how the named legislator voted, so the result is known.

3. At the time of the next election, the organization administering the
petition needs to commit to remind the petition signers how the named
legislator voted, and remind them of the pledge.

4. Signing the petition requires a nominal payment via credit card. ($1
or less. Enough to cover processing fees.) This qualifies the signor's
address as being in the correct political jurisdiction, and says the
signor is serious enough about the issue to spend some money on it.

5. The petition needs to be delivered to the representative by a paid
lobbyist along with bundled cash donations.

Steps 1 through 4 are optional. :-)


> ...if you want your legislators to take note of you and your cause,
> you need to do it in person, by telephone, or in writing....

Speaking of which, I haven't heard back from the state rep I wrote,
aside from an immediate automated response, which basically said "if
this is important, call and speak to one of my aids."

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/