New Website Lets Users Contact Elected Officials

Posted on January 7, 1999

E-the People, a new, free Internet service, allows visitors to find an elected official and send off a free e-mail to him or her. The site has a database of 170,000 local, state and federal officials in over 7,800 towns and cities nationwide. E- the People also allows citizens groups to post on-line petitions and seek signatures in support of those petitions via e-mail.

This new site is being demonstrated to citizens groups and politicians nationwide by Alex Sheshunoff. Mr. Sheshunoff's bus, the Grassroots Express, has traveled o ver 24,000 miles in an 80-city cross country tour to spread the word of E- the People's website.

"A lot of people have been talking about the intersection of the Internet and democracy," says Mr. Sheshunoff. "But few have been willing to write the code." Over 70.5 million (34.9%) of the 202 million U.S. adults use the Internet.