Everybody is told that their vote is important, but not many know that there are things that they can do beyond their simple vote. A vote does let the U.S. government know what representatives one may want in place, but people can also let representatives know what policies they would like them to put in place! There are many reasons currently to want to get in contact with a U.S. representative. From opinions on Supreme Court decisions, opinions filling new non-elected government positions, asking or even telling one’s flat out opinion on legislation that is currently being drafted. There are many different reasons one may come up with to contact a U.S. representative or elected official. There are even multiple avenues for this in all fields of government, whether it is at a state or federal level. One can even learn how to call local level mayors!

One of the best options is to find your U.S. representative. This website is a government-run website that gives links that lead to the contact information of all elected officials in the U.S. This includes lists of all the U.S. Senators and all the members of the U.S. House of Representatives along with their phone numbers, links to their website, and where to find their office. Most representatives’ websites will have additional contact information, such as email addresses, which can also prove useful.

There are also U.S. White House and U.S. Capitol switchboards that allow one to get a hold of representatives by just using a phone if one prefers. The phone number for the U.S. White House switchboard is 202.456.1414. It should be noted that the White House has a comments line that can also be reached by calling 202.456.1111. The U.S. Capital Switchboard can be contacted by calling 202.224.3121. Among these government resources are additional resources that are made available online by other organizations as well. Although the official government resources are more reliable, it is worth mentioning that there are other avenues one can take, such as this online list of all people of Congress with all public contact information that they might have.

However, one chooses to find the contact information that is available, it is important that one gets their voice heard by their representatives. A vote is a good first step, but actually letting one’s president, congressmen, governor, or mayor know what one may think of what is going on in words can leave an even greater impact.

Abraham Lopez, Grandview Student Council President