One-third of We the People petitions are Six Months Old

Out of 59 live petitions on We the People, 21, or about one third, date back to the site's first two weeks online and are still waiting for a promised response from the White House six months later.

Those petitions were all filed between Sept. 22, 2011 when We the People launched and Oct. 3, 2011, when officials raised the threshold for an administration response from 5,000 signatures to 25,000. Nine of the petitions date back to the first day We the People launched. A Frequently Asked Questions tab on the petition site states: "We will do our best to respond to petitions that cross the signature threshold in a timely fashion, however, depending on the topic and the overall volume of petitions from We the People, responses may be delayed." The White House was clearly overwhelmed by a flood of petitions during the site's first days, evidenced by the decision to quintuple the response threshold. And officials haven't ignored the site. They've gamely posted 55 petition responses since October.