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If a citizen is having trouble with a state agency, what should he or she do? E-mailing the governor's office seems like a logical idea...

If a citizen is having trouble with a state agency, what should he or she do? E-mailing the governor's office seems like a logical idea -- logical not only because governors are the most visible representatives of state government, but also because elected officials can be counted on to care about constituent service.

At least that's what I expected when I tried to find out how responsive governors' offices really are. My strategy was to use the electronic contact information designed for citizen questions on each governor's Web site. However, I didn't masquerade as an average citizen; I identified myself as a reporter who was testing the responsiveness of the governor's office and told them to get back to me right away to score best. That meant I wasn't truly evaluating how quickly the offices respond to citizens, but rather an important part of that equation: how quickly they read their e-mail.

In a few cases, the Web sites offered old-fashioned e-mail address -- governor@state.gov -- but in most cases I had to fill out an e-mail Web form. The main point of these forms is to avoid spam, but they also often gather a good bit of information about the inquirer and the nature of the inquiry (here is Georgia's, for example). In a perfect world, this information would allow states to better manage inquiries. If a citizen lists "health care" as a subject, the message could go directly to a health-care point person who could offer a quick and well-informed response.

Quick responses, however, were hard to come by for me. Fewer than half of the states responded within 24 hours. Reading an e-mail message shouldn't take a full day.

I didn't find any regional differences between the states or much difference between Democratic and Republican governors, but size did matter. Of the first 17 states to get back to me, only one, Georgia, is among the nation's 10 most populous. California and Texas didn't respond at all. Sure, big states get more inquiries, but they also ought to have bigger staffs to respond, so it's not clear to me why they would have struggled.

Here's how each state performed, as well as some additional comments:

Responded within two hours: Nevada, Indiana, Connecticut, Kansas, Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin, Maine, North Dakota, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Montana and Alabama

The quickest response I received was from the office of Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons, which got back to me in three minutes. Following closely behind at seven minutes and 10 minutes were the governors' offices of Indiana and Connecticut, respectively.

Gibbons' office did something that no other governor does: listed an e-mail address that belongs to a real person (other than the governor) as the office's primary contact. That would be Tina Burke, director of constituent services, who told me the office tries to get back to constituents within 24 hours, usually faster.

Interestingly, Burke's e-mail address has since been removed from Gibbons' contact page and replaced by a Web form, although you can still find it if you click "email -- Carson City" on the site map. Regardless of whether they use Web forms, I'd love to see more agencies at all levels of government list a real person as an e-mail contact and then have that person promptly send an e-mail back. Citizens -- and journalists -- will show a lot more patience if they immediately receive a brief but personal response promising that the question will be answered or the problem will be solved.

Responded within 24 hours: Nebraska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Idaho, Michigan, Utah, Oklahoma, Vermont, South Dakota, Colorado and Illinois

Responded within 48 hours: Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Washington, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Florida and Hawaii

A representative of Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle's office called me to let me know their response would have been faster had the day I sent my message, March 26, not been Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day, a state holiday. She also said that the office typically responds within 48 hours and that Governor Lingle personally reads every message.

Responded after 48 hours: Missouri, Alaska, South Carolina, Rhode Island and Oregon

The last state to respond was Rhode Island, seven days, four hours and 21 minutes after my initial message. If I had to wait that long for help accessing a state prescription drug program, I'd be awfully grouchy.

Didn't respond: Delaware*, Maryland*, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia*, Kentucky, Minnesota*, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona*, Wyoming and California

These are states that didn't get back to me within two weeks of my original e-mail. There's a chance they may still respond, but in e-mail time, two weeks might as well be never.

* States with asterisks in this category are ones that did send automated responses, but didn't follow up with a human response. In fairness to them, I never specifically said that a real person had to respond. I know that this was a cause for some confusion because someone from North Carolina called, asking if their automated message counted.

No electronic contact available: Mississippi

As you can see, Mississippi only offers phone and snail-mail contact options. There's a Web form specifically for scheduling requests, but I decided not to use it since I wasn't submitting a scheduling request. While the lack of an electronic option might seem to make Mississippi's Web site a relic of the 20th century, having no e-mail is a lot better than encouraging constituents to respond by e-mail and then forgetting to check your inbox.

Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
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