Congressman Jody Hice (R-GA) will host a telephone town hall tonight at 6:15 to give a legislative update for Georgia District 10 and take questions. Hice says this is an opportunity for him to be able to speak with his constituents during this busy time. Hice has held 11 town hall meetings via teleconference since being elected to Congress, and tonight’s teleconference will be his fifth this year.

Residents can participate by signing up at: hice.house.gov. or call: 855.756.7520 – Passcode: 37024#

And while Hice is using this teleconference as an opportunity to hear from his constituents, University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock says that there might be more going on.

“Well at a minimum its not a face-to-face. It’s not a chance to go up afterwards, suppose if you have a specific problem that is unique to you or your family then you can ask them precisely about that.”

Bullock went on to say that by losing this face-to-face interaction, a Congressman eleminates a lot of personal case work that a normal town hall meeting would provide.

However, teleconference town hall meetings are not all bad according to Nadgey Louis-Charles, a spokesperson for Congressman Hice. She said in a comment to Grady Newsource that “Telephone town halls allow the Congressman to reach thousands of constituents at once from the comfort of their own homes…” and “..these telephone town hall meetings provide yet another means for the Congressman to be accessible to all residents of the 25 counties he serves.”

But Bullock says that the harrassment of constituents to a member of Congress during town hall meetings has given rise to these now teleconferenced meetings.

“Maybe that’s why we see more teleconferences than in-person, listening for when people actually show up.”