Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend, the town of Vernon and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
Spam Blocker Working Too Hard
Recently I learned that someone was sending emails to my office, and the emails were not reaching my inbox. As you can imagine, the sender was frustrated at not receiving a reply. This is unacceptable for both the sender and for me.
I contacted staff at the Legislative Technical Service Bureau (LTSB) to find out what happened. LTSB staff explain that each email sent to the Wisconsin Legislature passes through the spam filtering system and is given a spam score. Free web-based emails accounts are frequently used by spammers. Emails sent from these email addresses receive a higher spam score. The filtering technology takes into consideration the sender’s email address, the content of the message, links within the email, the number of recipients, etc. The score determines the likelihood of the email being spam. Spam emails are quarantined or blocked depending on their scores, and if a score is high enough to block an email, even the receiver is unaware that it was ever sent. The parameters associated with the scoring process are adjusted by the spam filtering technology provider on an hourly basis to keep current with clever spammers.
The Legislature receives nearly 100,000 emails from outside sources in a day. Approximately 90,000 of these emails are blocked because they are identified as spam or containing viruses.
Two factors, in this instance, contributed to the recent sender’s emails being blocked. The email came from a free email domain, and contained links to websites. I have since directed a modification to settings to allow this person’s emails to reach my inbox.
I remain very concerned that constituent emails may be blocked. If you have emailed me in the past and have not received an answer, please try again. If you do not receive a response, please telephone my office at 1-800-334-1442. Please keep in mind that Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. and emails containing links may be blocked, and you will not receive a notice that they did not reach their intended destination. If you make my office aware that you are a constituent, that your emails may be blocked, and provide your email address, a modification will be made to allow your emails to reach their destination.
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