<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>Loughla</author><text>Due to COVID, my representatives no longer take visitors, and no longer take phone calls to their office, nor do they provide a contact e-mail. They have a form you can fill out on their websites.&lt;p&gt;That way you get a response (thank you for completing the form) and then zero way to track the communication. In my case, I have never received anything after that from any of my representatives.&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t call to check on it, because, again, they&amp;#x27;re no longer taking phone calls. And even if they did, you have no reference number.&lt;p&gt;They took advantage of the pandemic to just completely cut ties with their constituents outside of THEIR approved avenues.&lt;p&gt;Super cool. Very representative.</text><parent_chain><item><author>exhilaration</author><text>You should let them know to contact their state legislator. From what I read on various state subreddits that&amp;#x27;s the only way to get a response from your overwhelmed state unemployment office. This is the equivalent to escalating your issue to a manager.</text></item><item><author>lotsofpulp</author><text>&amp;gt; because their internal systems were designed to delay, deny and deprive, I say.&lt;p&gt;Definitely.  I know someone in NJ who has not received unemployed benefits for 14 months.  They call every month, and are told to keep waiting.  No one returns their calls, snail mail, or emails.&lt;p&gt;There is zero justification the government cannot respond via email, or give you a call back, other than they would like you to waste so much of your time and effort on hold that you give up.</text></item><item><author>mistrial9</author><text>American here&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;perhaps better known as the online identity verification service that many states now use to help staunch the loss of billions of dollars in unemployment insurance and pandemic assistance stolen each year by identity thieves&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;In the great State of California, &lt;i&gt;billions&lt;/i&gt; in unemployment benefits were sent to the wrong people.. because their internal systems were designed to delay, deny and deprive, I say. Actual people with real jobs were repeatedly refused, while insiders who knew how to fill out paperwork, and apparently knew where the blind spots were, filed hundreds of claims in the early pandemic days. A newly appointed Director (young, tech savvy woman) soon stopped making public statements, and the situation nearly two years later, is not resolved.  This is at a time when California has record income to the State.&lt;p&gt;Now, some people may jump on this and say &amp;quot;well, you see how photo ID would have helped that&amp;quot; and, with incomplete knowledge and personal opinion, I say no, it would not solve it. You see, people with real jobs, with every real paper filed, were &lt;i&gt;denied&lt;/i&gt; benefits, while insiders were pulling checks with both hands, using certain kinds of identities that would slip through. How would ever more restriction, requirement and verification, have helped here?&lt;p&gt;I am deeply against the collective government making ever more demands on citizens for &amp;quot;papers, please&amp;quot; enrollment to massive money social services (&lt;i&gt;edit e.g. govt unemployment benefits&lt;/i&gt;). It is not going to have the desired effect, despite superficial evidence otherwise. Additionally this represents a slippery slope where the ability to interact as an individual will be eroded, and opportunity for insider graft will increase.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access</title><url>https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/01/irs-will-soon-require-selfies-for-online-access/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>ryanianian</author><text>100% this. I had an issue with the NJ DMV, and the senator&amp;#x27;s office was able to get my issue resolved like same-day and told the DMV to eat glass. I even got a formal apology letter from the DMV.&lt;p&gt;Not all congresscritters will have the same effectiveness, but that is the first place to start if the trail to getting results turns to a dead-end.</text><parent_chain><item><author>exhilaration</author><text>You should let them know to contact their state legislator. From what I read on various state subreddits that&amp;#x27;s the only way to get a response from your overwhelmed state unemployment office. This is the equivalent to escalating your issue to a manager.</text></item><item><author>lotsofpulp</author><text>&amp;gt; because their internal systems were designed to delay, deny and deprive, I say.&lt;p&gt;Definitely.  I know someone in NJ who has not received unemployed benefits for 14 months.  They call every month, and are told to keep waiting.  No one returns their calls, snail mail, or emails.&lt;p&gt;There is zero justification the government cannot respond via email, or give you a call back, other than they would like you to waste so much of your time and effort on hold that you give up.</text></item><item><author>mistrial9</author><text>American here&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;perhaps better known as the online identity verification service that many states now use to help staunch the loss of billions of dollars in unemployment insurance and pandemic assistance stolen each year by identity thieves&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;In the great State of California, &lt;i&gt;billions&lt;/i&gt; in unemployment benefits were sent to the wrong people.. because their internal systems were designed to delay, deny and deprive, I say. Actual people with real jobs were repeatedly refused, while insiders who knew how to fill out paperwork, and apparently knew where the blind spots were, filed hundreds of claims in the early pandemic days. A newly appointed Director (young, tech savvy woman) soon stopped making public statements, and the situation nearly two years later, is not resolved.  This is at a time when California has record income to the State.&lt;p&gt;Now, some people may jump on this and say &amp;quot;well, you see how photo ID would have helped that&amp;quot; and, with incomplete knowledge and personal opinion, I say no, it would not solve it. You see, people with real jobs, with every real paper filed, were &lt;i&gt;denied&lt;/i&gt; benefits, while insiders were pulling checks with both hands, using certain kinds of identities that would slip through. How would ever more restriction, requirement and verification, have helped here?&lt;p&gt;I am deeply against the collective government making ever more demands on citizens for &amp;quot;papers, please&amp;quot; enrollment to massive money social services (&lt;i&gt;edit e.g. govt unemployment benefits&lt;/i&gt;). It is not going to have the desired effect, despite superficial evidence otherwise. Additionally this represents a slippery slope where the ability to interact as an individual will be eroded, and opportunity for insider graft will increase.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access</title><url>https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/01/irs-will-soon-require-selfies-for-online-access/</url></story>