I agree with dusqi. Whether a person feels slightly vs. passionately about an issue shouldn't necessarily matter, because it's still one vote, either way. You shouldn't have to make a big show of your opinion for it to count. A representative should do just that - represent people - and thus it is zir (aka his/her) OWN responsibility to seek out the opinions of zir constituents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is however easier for a petition to represent a small group of people with quite a few fake signatures (especially online).

You cant trust results from online petitions, there are always lots of duplicates and fake entries. Plus people reply to them that have no interest in the petition in question. Example, you get people in America signing petitions only meantr for UK people and vice versa.

 

 

 

Thats why politicians cant use online petition results as true stats. Plus you get a bias result from them, online votes are usually from younger people and so do not reflect the whole of the population.

 

 

 

When conducting a proper petition you get people from all age groups and social classes and together with high profile signatures you can get your point made in cabinet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I work for the government conducting research, focus groups, surveys and consultation meetings etc and im telling you now that online petitions are a waste of time. The only thing that gets your point noticed is speaking out and doing something active.

You cant trust results from online petitions, there are always lots of duplicates and fake entries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not really a petition, but there was a gallup at Iltalehti's (Finnish daily released news magazine) on president elections some months ago. Well, at the internet (major finnish boards+irc channels) people were asked to vote Timo Soini. He won that gallup with a huge difference. At real elections Soini got only 3,4% of all votes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Btw, I voted Soini and only because of his political ideas.