Your communication with elected representatives is the backbone of representative government.
Elections make sure that government actors are chosen by the people. But constituent communication keeps those representatives up to date on the thinking of those they represent.
So, just as hacked elections can put people in power who are not elected by the people, hacked communication can fraudulently misinform representatives and mislead their legislative decisions.
In days of paper communication, the USPS Creed assured us that “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” would keep our letters from being delivered. It was unimaginable that postal workers might rifle through our mail and secretly trash some—especially, if they were official government business.
But last January, that’s exactly what Wyomingites learned about selected emails entrusted to the government’s email system.
They had taken the time to study the issues and to write their legislators. But anonymous administrators of the wyoleg.gov email domain labeled their communication as “junk” and diverted it from their representative’s inbox.
As soon as this was brought to the attention of the Legislative Services Office (LSO), those particular emails were properly delivered. But other Wyomingites who never learned that their emails were trashed remained defrauded. Not only were their communications throttled, but they were deluded into believing that their voice had been heard.
Leaders of Wyoming’s House and Senate took up the issue during the April meeting of the Management Council. LSO Director Matt Obrecht reported that trashing of constituent emails was not done by state employees, but by anonymous employees of Microsoft who administer the state’s email system.
After hearing the details, Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Teton) said that he would prefer that the LSO restrict even more constituent emails! He said, “I think we’re trying to invent a problem that doesn’t exist.”
He also claimed that even if emails go to your junk folder, it’s your junk folder. So, they are, in fact, delivered to you. By that logic, as long as a postal worker dumped our parcels in our own trash can, and not our neighbor’s, they should be counted as delivered.
Similarly, Senate President Bo Biteman (R-Sheridan) opined, “There is no problem here people.” Emails that are written to only one legislator, he said, are usually delivered with no problem. But he seemed to say that emails addressed to multiple legislators deserve to be blocked.
Thankfully, the Management Council appointed a subcommittee to look more deeply into the matter. They met on July 15 and invited Microsoft’s Senior Technology Strategist Brandon Brin to inform them how and why certain emails are never delivered.
That discussion was helpful. It delineated three types of emails that are currently blocked.
First, there are emails that contain links to sites that could infect computers (malware), as well as emails designed to extract personal information (phishing). These are blocked because they pose a real security risk.
Second, there are unsolicited bulk email advertisements that are unrelated to the legislator’s state business. These are blocked as an annoyance and as a waste of public resources. But they pose no security risk.
Third, there are unsolicited bulk emails that address issues before the state legislator. If a constituent includes too many legislators in the address line, an email might never reach any of them. These emails are neither a security threat nor irrelevant. But they may be blocked nonetheless.
Brin debunked Gierau’s claim that blocked emails can always be retrieved from the junk folder or quarantine file. There are some blocked messages, Brin said, that “as an end-user, you wouldn’t see any reference to that in your junk email.”
That is a real and present problem. Constituents that trust the LSO to deliver their comments to specific legislators may be lied to. Their emails may be prejudicially labeled “junk” or may disappear without a trace.
Anyone who has experienced the throttling of shadow-banning (as have I) knows the feeling of personal violation. When you learn, later, that the cause of your deletion was that you spoke a truth that the administrator falsely considered misinformation, you understand why the First Amendment exists.
The state-run domain, wyoleg.gov, has given every legislator an official email address. That makes the state responsible to deliver those emails. When a constituent’s email is throttled, the state has betrayed both the legislator and constituent.
The Management Council has a clear choice. Either make the LSO mail system comply with the First Amendment or get out of the email business altogether. It’s that simple.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
