White House Drops First Names From We The People Petitions

The White House has abbreviated citizen signatures on its We the People petition website. The signatures, which used to include a signer’s first name and last initial, now just include first and last initials.

The signature blocks also include the signer’s location and the date of the signature. The change affected both signatures on active petitions and on historic petitions that have already received a White House response. There was no public announcement of the change and the White House declined to comment about it on the record. The change will likely reduce the amount of monitoring and oversight White House staffers must perform on petitions.