Putting together a petition is as easy as a few clicks on the internet these days.
There has been an influx of online petitions since the election. KIRO 7 looked into what impact they actually have.
One online petition calls on Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant to resign because of her anti-Donald Trump protests.
The petition had more than 18,000 signatures as of Monday.
There are multiple petitions to get rid of the Electoral College in presidential elections after Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but didn’t win the election.
Seattle University political science professor Marco Lowe told KIRO 7 that he's not aware of petitions that automatically enact change.
He said petitions are often more about building a base of supporters.
“They allow an organization to build a team of people over the long term,” said Lowe. “I think a lot of issues (that) we see flip, maybe marriage equality, probably started as a petition.”
The White House has a petition page that says that if your petition reaches 100,000 signatures in 30 days, you'll hear from the White House within 60 days.
KIRO 7 asked Lowe what it takes to get an elected official's attention.
“I think if you're an elected official and you agree with the issue, it's a great tool to bring to other elected officials,” said Lowe. “If you don't care about an issue, I think it has to be a tremendous amount of people to catch your attention. So if you're a small-city mayor, maybe 100 people. If you're governor of Washington, maybe 100,000, and I think 1 million on a national scale to catch your attention.”
Petition site change.org claims that it has seen petitions win with anywhere from 30 to 30,000 signatures. Lowe agrees with the site's advice that a successful petition should be clear, concise and focused on a solution.
Voters in Washington have a way to make laws based on the initiative system, like gay marriage and recreational marijuana. An initiative must get 246,372 signatures to appear on the statewide ballot.
Follow this link for breaking news updates and push alerts anytime with the KIRO 7 News App
Cox Media Group
