Are Petitions Heeded at all These Days?

Petitions are used to gather names and email addresses so that you can be targeted for political advertising. It is a pretty important tool if you are a political operative.

A couple of years ago I went to a workshop for computer programmers on uses of technology for political activism. We had a project that used big data technology to merge together databases to create lists of voters that could be targeted.

It is a pretty important technology, the side with the better programmers has a real advantage in elections.

Over here 100,000 signatures normally leads to it being debated in parliament.

https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/sign-a-petition/e-petitions/

Does that get you anything, Izzy? Are there any of these petitions that got anywhere after being "debated" in parliament.

We had a similar thing under Obama... most of the petitions were pretty quickly dismissed after being "considered" as promised.

100,000 signatures doesn't seem that difficult these days.

I have seen a lot of really, really weird petitions on Change.org.
https://www.change.org/p/cbs-save-star-trek-axanar (petition to drop a lawsuit by the rightful intellectual property holders against an infringer)
https://www.change.org/p/stop-changing-star-trek (this one has entitled fanboi/fangirl written all over it)
https://www.change.org/p/anjali-ewing-yogasuperheroes-put-yoga-on-the-school-curriculum (sure, because a sun salutation will make the shooters go away)
https://www.change.org/p/howard-kagan-bring-oak-onadowan-or-mandy-patinkin-back-to-great-comet-on-broadway (broadway fanpersons go wild)
etc etc

Change.org was created as a means for people to find their voices and it does work for that. But meaningful petitions (for cleaner air or water, to recall a politician, to improve conditions for workers, etc) are drowned out by the tsunami of petitions that are really all about first world problems.

Ayup.

Boaty McBoatface is the greatest accomplishment petition kind has ever created. Please don't disrespect the McBoatface!

We've got here as a right, both on federal as on state level:

Thus, we got a "Committee on Petitions for everything related to federal laws and federal affairs.

In my state (and in most if not all others), we've got a Committee on Petitions on the state parliament as well.

The Petitions Committee of the state parliament helps in case of trouble with the local, regional and state authorities. Citizens can appeal to the committee with a complaint.
Anyone can submit a petition. There are no guidelines for the wording. However, the petition must be in writing, signed and stating the name and address of the petitioner. In the case of collective petitions, the address and signature of a person representing the group are sufficient. It is also possible to submit an online petition on the Landtag website.

The European Parliament has a Committee on Petitions, too, petitions can be brought forward by any EU citizen on a matter within the EU's sphere of activities.

In 2017, 11,507 petitions were received at the Committee on Petitions of the German Bundestag. That's less than the average of 17,000/year (since 1990).
In my state, it is an average of 2,100 per year.