App for calling elected officials, and keeping track of calls

November 18, 2016 7:08 AM

Like many people, I'm trying to call my elected officials much more frequently and I'd like to have an app to help me, and to track my calls. I haven't found anything- the closest was Countable which helps you email your reps about active bills.

The app I would like would:
1. Let me save the elected officials I call most frequently (should include all contact info, but I'm mostly hoping for it to be about phone calls).
2. Track calls and let me save things like details (eg left voicemail, spoke to staff, rep is voting yes/no, issue I was calling about, etc).
3. If possible it would be great if the app took suggestions from one or more progressive advocacy organizations and would push out issue alerts.
4. Optional integration with social media (I don't care as much about this but others might) so you could immediately post on social media "I just called Rep Whoever and asked him to vote no on Terrible Idea. Click here to find your rep." Or something like that.

Does any app like this exist, and if not, who could be persuaded to make one?

posted by cushie to Law & Government (5 answers total)

Ha, while you're at it, I'd like to add in the requirement of "lets me print and send physical postcards with photo I upload" to the list. (I researched building a similar tool myself last year, but never got around to doing anything more about it.)

Because DAMN wouldn't it be awesome to be able to send a postcard with my daughters' picture on it to tell my elected officials to vote for equal rights?

Sorry, when I researched it last year, I didn't find anything. What I'm using right now is the ubiquitous "we are his problem now" google spreadsheet that someone is updating live with issues and contact info.
posted by instamatic at 3:07 PM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think you just invented yourself an app idea, and there's no better time than now to develop it. It's actually surprising something like this doesn't exist in order to engage people more in being good citizens.
posted by Mystical Listicle at 3:47 PM on November 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

I've seen at least one person on Twitter say they were working on such an app (here). So maybe give it a bit of time?
posted by bluloo at 6:03 PM on November 18, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks, bluloo. By following that thread I found this Contact Congress app. I haven't played with it yet, so I'm not sure if it has additional functionality like saving your reps, tracking calls, etc but it's a start.
posted by cushie at 9:59 PM on November 18, 2016

Response by poster: I haven't tried it yet, but this is the site (not app, yet) developed just now, and mentioned above: Call to Action.
posted by cushie at 8:26 PM on November 21, 2016