How can I keep track and count of "e-signatures" for an on-line petition?

Question

Aside from using a visitor counter, how can I keep count and track of "e-signatures" for an on-line petition and also prevent visitors to the site from signing/voting multiple times?

Answer 1

I'll say it anyway, regardless of what others are saying.

You could try a site such as: http://www.petitionspot.com/

Just to give you some options.

Answer 2

Unforuntely this is the problem with online petitions and why many legislators choose to ignore them.  You could make them fill out a form with their name and perhaps some personal information and then log the IP they access your petition from, but there's still no guarantee that they won't be able to bypass whatever system you put in place and sign multiple times.  Your best bet: get real signatures.

Answer 3

I think it would depend on what program you are using to collect the signatures. I hope that helps.

Answer 4

unless it's your site, you can't prevent people from signing twice..only the site can do that.



One idea, is to use a kind of middle-ground...so anyone you send to the petition will go through your link. When they click on the link the visit is tracked and filtered so that only unique hits can enter onto the petition.

of course, somebody could just go straight to the petition, but if they're not that internet savvy they won't think of that.

You would also need your own domain and a MySQL database to track visits and store ip's etc.