Improving the Voter-to-Representative Ratio

(Robert suggested an idea on the Feedback page of our website to address the poor representative-to-resident communication gap discussed in our book, Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People. We invited him to elaborate.)

Robert:

“Fixing Congress prompted my thoughts about communications between residents and their representatives. As your book noted, the current ratio is one member of the US House to 762,000 residents! No wonder voters feel ignored.

The book taught me that elected members of Congress may hire up to 18 staff members to help with communication challenges. Members receive approximately 50,000 communications per year, some seeking help to solve problems like Social Security, passports, or veteran’s benefits, and most are related to legislation.

Even if the Congressperson read all 50,000 messages, they would only have heard from about 6.5% of the district’s residents – assuming none wrote several times.

Senators have no fixed number of staff; their limit is based on the population of their state. If you think a Voter-to-Representative ratio of 1 to 762,00 reduces your voice, consider that you may be only one in millions of residents regarding your Senator.

Congress is supposed to be the most important level of our federal government, the policymaker, yet it is far removed from practical public input.

Why not use digital communication and knowledge about creating modern high-speed systems to address these communication disparities?

When searching for an improved solution, it’s important to remember what I read in Fixing Congress:

·      Each Member of Congress answers exclusively to their voters;

·      Members are not obligated to listen to other Members of Congress, Senators, the Speaker of the House, or the President.

·      Each Member represents one congressional district; Congressional members from other states probably don’t care what I think about an issue.

To build a fast, workable system, laws would require voter registrars to provide each Congressional Representative the list of their congressional district’s voters after each election and allow Members to send digital surveys whenever voting decisions are coming up in committees or Congress.

Each representative survey request should include an objective pro-con statement about an upcoming vote and enable the recipient to respond anonymously to the Member. The voter list should not be used to solicit donations, nor should the residents sending opinions get a response from the Congressman.

Residents' responses should be computer-tabulated with a minimum of demographic information from the voter registration records beyond verification that the sender is a registered voter. The accumulated responses would immediately reach their Representative in a cumulative, not individualized, format.

The Senate could utilize a similar communication, digital approach to improve their voter’s input. Almost anything would be better than the current ratio.”