Fifteen years ago, when online petitions weren't as common and a thousand signatures represented significant effort, I hand delivered a petition with 1500 signatures to the office of my "representative." I was led into an office where a very nice lady was answering the phones. People were calling with their concerns, and she wrote down what they said on a small piece of paper, and then put the paper in a drawer.

I waited for a lull in the phone calls, then told her what the petition was about. She listened very attentively and politely, thanked me for bringing the issue to her attention, then took the thick printout and put it in the same drawer.

At that point I realized that wad of papers represented a complete waste of time.

The weasel voted the opposite of what the petition requested. I doubt he was ever informed that it even existed.