I am not sure. There seems to be evidence that they do not respond to a few petitions, even when they meet the 100K signatures (at least immediately)[1]. Since [1]'s release, it appears that they have responded to a few of the petitions mentioned, and if you look at the site itself[2] (assuming "popular" is actually sorting by the number of signatures) there are only 15 unanswered petitions that meet the 100K requirement (though they changed the limit a few times and some may have met the original requirement). I suspect that they only respond to petitions that are in the mutual interest of the public and the politicians themselves but I have no evidence to support it.
Comments
I am not sure. There seems to be evidence that they do not respond to a few petitions, even when they meet the 100K signatures (at least immediately)[1]. Since [1]'s release, it appears that they have responded to a few of the petitions mentioned, and if you look at the site itself[2] (assuming "popular" is actually sorting by the number of signatures) there are only 15 unanswered petitions that meet the 100K requirement (though they changed the limit a few times and some may have met the original requirement). I suspect that they only respond to petitions that are in the mutual interest of the public and the politicians themselves but I have no evidence to support it.
[1] http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2014/01/white-house-owe... [2] https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions/popular/0/2/0