"In the first 10 months of 2012, it took an average of 18 days for a new petition to cross the 25,000-signature threshold. In the last two months of the year, that average time was cut in half to just 9 days, and most petitions that crossed the threshold collected 25,000 signatures within five days of their creation. More than 60 percent of the petitions to cross threshold in all of 2012 did so in the last two months of the year". -based on a source.
It may not have occurred to the WH staff based on the above missleading commentary that 2012 was an election year. Surely everyone in the nation was bestowed with extra political zeal. I'm doubtful that the trend that took place last year that WH used as a reason to change to 100K signatures will continue into the next 3 years.