Write your officials

A short letter from a named constituent, on the record, is worth more than most people think -- clerks log them, members count them, and three letters on the same topic reads as an issue. Pick your topic and who you are writing to; the letter rewrites itself with specific, answerable asks. This page is for contacting your government. To contact this site or send us a tip, use Submit a source.

⚲Where do I send this?Enter your ZIP and we will name the office, cite your state's law, and fill in the form below.

Where to look. Enter a ZIP above and these will target your city by name:

All your elected officials, by address → opens www.usa.gov/elected-officials What you want: The government's own lookup. Start here if you are not certain who represents you -- federal, state and local in one search.
Your city council or county board → opens a search for city council members contact email What you want: Member emails, or the clerk's address. Sending to the clerk and asking for distribution reaches every member at once.
Your school board → opens a search for school district board of education contact What you want: The board roster and the district clerk. Letters to the clerk reach all members and enter the record.
Your state legislators → opens openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ What you want: Enter your street address, not just the ZIP -- districts routinely split ZIP codes.
Your members of Congress → opens www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member What you want: Both senators and your representative, with their contact forms.

Found the address? Put it in the Send to field below and the button will email your letter straight there.

The national lookups above work without a ZIP. Entering one also fills in your city and state on the form below.

The letter builder

1What is this about?Sets the argument and the specific asks in the letter.

Topic

2Who are you writing to?Changes the greeting and what you are asking them to actually do -- a council can agenda it, a legislator cannot.

Recipient

3Where are you writing from?Being a constituent is the whole reason the letter carries weight, so this part matters more than it looks.

State Your city / county Your name Send to

Your letterclick to edit

Short and specific beats long and angry. If you only change one thing, add a sentence about how this affects you personally -- that is the part staff quote back to members.

Finding the right person

City council / county board: your city or county website, under Council, Board, or Clerk. Sending to the clerk with a request to distribute reaches every member at once.
School board: the district website under Board of Education; the district clerk distributes to members.
State legislators: every state legislature runs an official find-my-legislator lookup by address on its website.
Congress: congress.gov has a Find Your Member search by address.
Meetings near you: our calendar finds upcoming votes and hearings by ZIP code -- a letter followed by showing up is the strongest combination there is.

After you send it

Send it, then follow it. Ask for a written reply. If none comes in two weeks, resend on the same thread -- a second message with the first quoted is harder to file away.
Say it out loud too. The same letter read at public comment, in two minutes, reaches every member plus the press and goes in the minutes. Written and spoken together is the combination that moves votes.
Bring one other person. Three residents on the same topic reads as an issue rather than a complaint; one reads as a hobbyist. It is the cheapest force multiplier available.
Ask for the documents. If they answer with generalities, request the underlying records -- contracts, staff reports, the agreement itself.

Build a records request → Ask for the contract, the permits, and the emails.