BURNS, Ore. — Efforts to petition the White House to offer executive clemency for ranchers Dwight and Steve Hammond are not off to a good start, according to one veteran of “We the People” petitions.
The White House has promised to respond to any petition that gathers 100,000 online signatures on its website set up for petitioning the government. It has even responded in the past to a “Star Wars”-inspired petition asking the government to construct a new Death Star.
But getting that many signatures can be tough, especially because folks have to do it in a 30-day window. Derek Khanna is an attorney who helped spearhead a petition to allow “unlocking” cellphones, which got a White House response and resulted in actual legislation.
“We were the first to hit 100,000 signatures and we saw a lot of campaigns that failed,” Khanna told the Washington Examiner Wednesday. He estimates that fewer than 1 percent of “We the People” petitions actually succeed.
A local from here in Burns has started a petition asking President Obama for executive clemency for the two ranchers on Dec. 28. At press time, it had gathered 7,170 digital signatures, leaving 92,830 to go. Which, to Khanna, means the effort is probably doomed.
“I don’t think it’s close… While often more signatures come as you have more, self-fulfilling, they really aren’t close enough,” Khanna judged.
Even in the event that a last minute push gets the petition over the top, there’s no guarantee it will work. The Obama administration has promised a response, not a yes. After all, they said no to a new Death Star.
