Urge your senators to support the Fair Elections Now Act! Sending letters, faxes and emails to your senators are good ways to be heard.

These tips will help increase the effectiveness of your letter:

• Keep it brief. Your letter should tackle only the Fair Elections Now Act, and should be under a page in length.

• Start with who you are and what you want. In the first paragraph, let your senator know that you are a constituent and state that you are writing about S. 1285, the Fair Elections Now Act.

• Use only a few, strong points to make your case. Choose a few of the talking points that will be most persuasive to legislators and flesh them out. For example, mention the success of public funding of elections on the local level, and its popularity with the American people.

• Make the letter personal. Explain how public funding of elections affects your community or state, or even you and your family. Give an example of a local benefit that could come from cleaning up Congress.

• Your opinion matters. Your legislators are there to represent you. While you should be polite and focused, make sure to take a firm position. Remember that just because they were elected to office does not necessarily mean they know more about public financing of elections than you do.