POPVOX is designed to help Congressional staff deal with increasing constituent communications. The slides describe how messages sent through POPVOX are tagged for the most friction-free processing possible within Congressional offices (with 100% delivery guarantee!)

1. How POPVOX
Delivers Messages
to Congress*
*in the most effective and accountable way possible.
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2. With POPVOX, individuals share their opinions on
pending bills with Congress in two ways:
1. visiting www.POPVOX.com
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3. With POPVOX, individuals share their opinions on
pending bills with Congress in two ways:
2. weighing in through a “widget”
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4. The individual chooses to “support” or “oppose” a bill or
issue, and may write an original message:
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5. The individual provides real name, address, and
phone number:
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6. The individual previews the message, corrects any
errors, and “sends” to Congress:
Name
Address
City, State ZIP
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7. The position is added to the tally and comment listed
on the POPVOX bill report:
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8. The input is sent to the individual’s Congressional
representative electronically with a format
structured for easy processing:
Bill number
Subject:
Support/Oppose
#HR3035 #Oppose H.R. 3035: Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011
Date Message:
01/18/2012. I oppose H.R. 3035: Mobile Informational Call Act of
Contact info 2011. Telemarketing is enough of a problem for land line phones. The
internet today makes it incredibly easy for any number of distributors
Link to bill report to sell out personal contact information in an instant. If this ability
were to be expanded to cell phones, it could have literally
If a user writes a unimaginable consequences.
personal story, they
expect a response ___
sent via popvox.com; info@popvox.com; see https://
www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr3035/report
ReplyChoice:
Respond
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9. Information about the sponsoring organization is
included in the message to help with Congressional
processing and response:
Information from the
POPVOX organization
directory Organization
Consumer Watchdog
Organization Description
Consumer Watchdog is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
providing an effective voice for taxpayers and consumers in an era
when special interests dominate public discourse, government and
politics.
CampaignInfo:
Campaign1
CampaignID:
https://www.popvox.com/orgs/consumerwd
DeliveryAgent/DeliveryAgentContact:
Same
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10. If an individual chooses not to write a personal
message, their input is still shared with Congress,
but they are told not to expect a response:
Subject:
#HR3035 #Oppose H.R. 3035: Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011
[This constituent weighed in at POPVOX.com but chose not to leave a
If a user does not write personal comment and is not expecting a response. See http://
a personal message, www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr3035/report. Contact
they are told not to info@popvox.com with delivery concerns.]
expect a response from
Congress. ReplyChoice:
No Response Necessary
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11. Delivery Details
• 100% delivery guarantee.
• Message is delivered to chamber where issue
is pending.
If next vote is in House, input goes to the Representative; if next vote is in the
Senate, message goes to both Senators.
When a bill moves from one chamber to the other, messages are forwarded.
(I.e. when a House bill passes the House, messages registered on the bill are
forwarded to the Senate.)
• The individual receives confirmation on the
POPVOX home page when the message is
delivered.
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12. Delivery Details
• All messages are attempted electronically,
sending through Congressional webforms.
• 99.5% of electronic delivery attempts are
successful.
• If a message cannot be delivered
electronically, it is printed and physically
delivered to Congress.
POPVOX delivers print messages weekly.
• Some offices choose CSV download.
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13. POPVOX APIs & Integration
• POPVOX APIs allow
other sites to use
POPVOX data
• In July 2012, House
Democrats integrated
POPVOX APIs into
DemCom to display:
➡ Organization positions
➡ Sentiment maps and
charts for each bill
• APIs are available for
noncommercial use by
all.
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