Collect signatures online and on paper
Many campaigns happen in both places at once: a link that spreads online and a sheet of paper at a market stall, a meeting or a front door. You can enter the signatures collected offline into the same petition, so the hand-over is one list with one total instead of a web page plus a folder of photocopies.
How to add a signature collected offline
- Open your petition and choose Add a signature in the petition menu.
- Under Why are you adding this signature? choose The signature was collected offline.
- Fill in the details the person gave on paper. The form shows the same fields your signature form asks for, and none of them are required here.
- Tick the consent questions the person agreed to, for example public display or handing the signature over to a named decision-maker.
- Save The signature joins the list immediately.
If your petition has several language versions, the form also asks which version was signed.
Taking the petition with you
Choose Print the petition in the petition menu to print the petition text and your name as the petition author. That is the sheet people read before they sign. Collect the names and the other details on paper next to it, in the same form your signature form asks for, and enter them afterwards.
The 100 signature threshold
Manual addition is open once the petition has over 100 signatures. The limit exists because a petition that consists only of hand-typed signatures is impossible to tell apart from an invented one.
If you are collecting legitimate offline signatures before that point, choose Request permission to add signatures. The form asks how the signatures were or will be collected, the maximum number you need, and why the normal limit is in the way. You also confirm that every signature is entered with the signatory's authorization, that the details are accurate and that you will not create duplicate or invented signatures. Do not put any signatory's name or contact details into that explanation. Once the request is approved you can add up to the number you asked for.
Who it helps
A village association that gathers most of its names at a summer event and the rest online. A petition aimed at a council that counts only paper, where the online list is the fast part and the paper is the formal part. A campaign among people who are not comfortable with web forms, whose names would otherwise be left out entirely.
Limits and good to know
- You have to be logged in and have the right to add signatures to the petition.
- A signature added by hand is not confirmed by email, because there is no email confirmation to send. Enter only signatures you actually collected.
- An email address that has already signed the petition cannot be entered a second time.
- The same form also covers the case where a signatory shares an email address with someone who has already signed, and asked you to add their signature. Such a signature is marked on the signature list as added at the signatory's request.
- Very old petitions, created before this feature existed, cannot use it.
Questions and answers
Where do paper signatures end up?
In the same signature list and the same total as the online ones, and in the same downloads.
Why can I not add signatures right away?
To prevent abuse, the feature opens once the petition has over 100 signatures. Before that you can request permission with "Request permission to add signatures".
Do I have to fill in every field?
No. On this form none of the fields are required, so you can enter what the person actually wrote on the paper.
What about the consent questions?
They are shown as checkboxes and you tick only what the person agreed to. Leaving them unticked is the honest answer when the paper did not ask.
Can a co-manager add signatures?
Yes, if you have given them the right to add signatures.