We’ve mentioned Cosponsor, the new website the Congress created for citizen advocacy, and HR2000PR, perhaps the first website created for an individual bill. There is another citizen advocacy website, We the People, created by the White house.
This section of the White House website can be found under the Administration tab at WhiteHouse.gov.
Here visitors can create petitions and sign petitions others have drafted. Visitors must create an account and confirm their email addresses before being able to create or sign petitions. Once a visitor has created an account, there are no further barriers to participation. As the White House explains at the website,
The right to petition your government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. We the People provides a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. We created We the People because we want to hear from you. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.
At present, a petition must gain 100,000 signatures within 30 days to merit a response.
Petitions currently at the website show a wide range of topics and of levels of popularity:
We the People is another example of the way new technologies allow new ways for citizens to express their views.