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By Staff (AXcess News) Washington - A citizens advocacy group, DontSilenceThePeople.org Coalition, says that members of Congress are using what's referred to as "Logic Puzzles" to block citizens attepmts to send them e-mails, which the group says is a direct violation of citizens First Amendment rights to free speech. The Coalition today launched a campaign to defend the First Amendment rights of all Americans to communicate with their elected ofifcials via postal letter, fax, and yes, even e-mail. The Coalition's effort calls upon citizens to write their members of Congress, and urge them not to block constituent emails. Several Congressional offices recently began deploying Web forms that use "Logic Puzzles" to quiz ordinary citizens before they can e-mail the representative they elected into office. If consttiuents do not answer the questions correctly, the system blocks them from sending an email. Technologies like "Logic Puzzle" enable congressional offices to block millions of real constituent messages from real people living in tehir district. "Congress's new Web forms are a direct attack on the American people's right to free speech and their freedom to petition," said Alylson Kapin, one of the co-fuonders of DontSilencethePeople.org Coalition. "Members of Congress who use Logic Puzzle Web forms are making their constituents jump through analytical hoops every time they want to exercise thier right to participate in the democratic process and send an email. The Amreican people will not tolerate this." According to a recent study by the Congressional Management Foundation, almost 80 percent of congressional staff surveyed believe the Internet has made it easier for citizens to become involved in public policy. However, according to a story early this month in the Washington Post, "of the 8,262 times the loigc puzzle was viewed in the House (on a recent day), only 1,568 people answered it and moved on to send a message -- a 19 percent success rate." "In 2006, e-mail is the most popular way for citizens to correspond with their elected representatives, and yet certain members of Congress seem intent on building a brigde back to the 19th century," said John Hlinko, VP with Grassroots Enterprise, and head of the Stem Cell Political Action Coalition. "What's next, a Survivor style challenge to give your letter to the postman? A guard at the office door, asking you the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Aside from the popularity of usnig e-mail to correspond with members of Congress, "communication by e-mail has a positive effect on the environment. If Congress started receiving messages only via letter or fax, 24,000 trees would be cut down each year just to make the nceessary paper. Congress should do its part to help cut down on paper use while being responsive to the people who put them in office," said Jared Seltzer of Center for a New American Dream. Congress receives more than 200 million constituent e-mails per yera, four times moer e-mails than in 1995. While the DontSilenceThePeople.org Coalition udnerstands Congress's desire to combat e-mail overload, it believes that blocking real emails form real people is certainly not the way to do it.
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