Expanding Your Voice in Politics

In this election year, it’s become fashionable to complain about the federal government. Now, with the help of your PC, you can do something about it.

One new software program aims to help citizens influence their government and assist them in corresponding with various agencies and branches of the federal government. If that’s not enough, online information services such as America -Online, Compuserve and Prodigy offer features that allow you to keep abreast of campaign news, read candidate position papers and exchange ideas with fellow subscribers.

Federal Soapbox ($89) quickly provides information and tools to influence congressional representatives and other federal officials. It is published by Soapbox Software, 136 Summit Drive, Corte Madera, Calif. 94925, (800) 989-7627. It requires an IBM-compatible PC with about 3.5 megabytes of available disk space.

The program was developed by Kathleen Johnston and Lee Moberly of Corte Madera. “My husband and I were sitting at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper and feeling frustrated,” Johnston said. “We wanted to express our opinion and realized that by the time we dug up the information we needed, the fervor would be lost. We knew others had the same feeling, so we gathered up the information and put it on a computer.”

Federal Soapbox is easy to use, especially if your PC is equipped with a mouse. It opens with an organizational chart that shows the three branches of the federal government. Click on Judicial and you get a chart of the federal court system. Click on Executive for charts of the President’s Cabinet, the office of the President and independent agencies. Click on Legislative and you can view organizational charts of the House, Senate and Congressional offices.

It’s easy to find the information you need on specific people, committees and agencies. There are concise descriptions of each government office and congressional committee, as well as listings of all committee members.

You can locate your senators and representatives by typing in your ZIP code. You’ll get the necessary contact information as well as data on when they were first elected, when they’re up for reelection and what committees they serve on. You also get the names and titles of key staff members.

The program not only tells you who’s who, but helps you reach them. A built-in text editor lets you write letters to any official listed in the program. You don’t even have to type in the name and address. When you find the official’s name, you can press a key to write a letter to that person or add that name to your custom mailing list.

The program also provides tips on effective letter writing and includes some sample letters.

In addition to helping people voice their opinions, the program serves as a quick tutor on the federal bureaucracy. It would be a good tool for use in high school and college political science classes.

If your PC is equipped with a modem, consider using one of the online information services to keep track of the candidates and elected officials. Subscribers to America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy are able to access extra election year coverage in addition to regular news services.

Compuserve and Prodigy allow you to search for representatives’ names, addresses, phone numbers and committee assignments. With Compuserve, it’s easy to get a listing for an entire state, making it possible for you to create your own database for use with your word processing or database software. For about $2 a message, both Compuserve and Prodigy let you send electronic mail to elected officials. Letters are delivered, on paper, in about two days.

All the online services carry political news along with transcripts of the candidates’ speeches and some position papers. Prodigy offers profiles of all congressional candidates, including biographies, voting records and committee assignments (for incumbents), ratings from various political organizations and information on financial contributions from political action committees. Prodigy carries statements from President Bush and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, and members can submit questions to the candidates’ staffs.

Compuserve has an archive of position papers and speeches from candidates, along with news from the Associated Press, Washington Post and other sources.

America Online has a special elections forum, which includes election news, candidate position statements and a bulletin board where you can discuss politics with other members.

For information on America Online, call (800) 227-6364. Compuserve can be reached at (800) 848-8199, and Prodigy at (800) PRO-DIGY.