E-The People...Online Petitions

Standing for long hours in a shopping centre asking passers-by to sign your well-meaning petition could be a thing of the past after inspecting the latest Internet site with the clever name of E-The People.

The American site claims to be a non-partisan group that brings government closer to the people…handling electronic signatures and delivering weighty petitions online on just about any topic at all. Your petition is delivered directly to the appropriate government department or individual, as well as being passed on to over 400 media outlets and Internet portals.

Visitors to the site at www.e-thepeople.com can add their signatures to one of the 3293 petitions currently on offer from banning animal experimentation to stopping the death penalty (in the US) or join an online debate on a wide range of topics.

For organisations wanting to begin their own petition campaign, the site offers all the technical and promotional information that is required to get off the ground and into cyberspace!

And, as an interesting sideline the site offers a facility for paying parking fines in the States. (This is not a joke!) For a small fee per ticket you can enter the fine information and your credit card number (on a secure line) and presto! It’s paid.