The final tallies are in at Change.org:

Winners of the Ideas for Change in America Competition

After 656,991 votes for 7,847 ideas, we present the top 10 ideas for change

1. Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana (19,530)
2. Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Non-Violence (14,994)
3. Free Single Payer Health Care (13,928)
4. Make the grid green in 10 years (12,913)
5. Get FISA Right, repeal the PATRIOT Act, and restore our civil liberties (12,285)
6. Save Small Business From the CPSIA (12,280)
7. Health Freedom IS Our First Freedom (12,062)
8. Pass the DREAM Act – Support Higher Education for All Students (12,010)
9. Pass Marriage Equality Rights for LGBT Couples Nationwide (11,889)
10. Develop & Implement a National Strategy for Sustainability (9,644)

Legalizing marijuana was the top idea at Change.org by almost 5,000 votes.  It beat the next closest competitor by 30%.  It took almost a full 3% of all the votes cast and 15% of the Top Ten votes.

Now, I’ve been scouring then net all morning to find reporting on this story.  I found a press release on MSNBC announcing the press conference, but no actual coverage of the press conference.  The first hit I pull up on the announcement was from media in the UK!

WASHINGTON, DC — (Marketwire) — 01/16/09 — Change.org today announced the winners of its Ideas for Change in America competition at an event at the National Press Club and attended by nonprofit leaders, grassroots activists, and members of the Obama campaign and incoming administration.

The ideas were accepted on behalf of the transition team by Macon Phillips, Director of New Media for the Presidential Transition Team, who spoke about the importance of citizen-led efforts like Ideas for Change in America for increasing civic participation.

Ben Rattray, founder and CEO of Change.org, followed the announcement by introducing the launch of a national advocacy campaign behind each winning idea in partnership with leading nonprofit organizations, including 1 Sky, Health-Care NOW, and The Peace Alliance.

“The crowd-sourcing of ideas through a nationwide voting process was only the first half of this project,” explained Rattray. “The second half will focus on mobilizing the grassroots energy behind each idea to translate it into policy. Our intention is not for these to be mere suggestions for the administration, but to represent an agenda for change that we will help drive within the administration and Congress over the next year.”

After the announcement, the event featured a panel of leading thinkers on how the government, nonprofit organizations, and grassroots groups can take lessons from the Obama campaign and initiatives like Ideas for Change in America to deepen civic participation. 

Change.org is an online hub and media network for social issues and collective action. The San Francisco-based social entrepreneurship venture operates a network of blogs covering more than a dozen major social issues and has partnered with more than 3000 leading nonprofit organizations to provide outlets for powerful action. Change.org was founded by two former classmates from Stanford, Ben Rattray and Mark Dimas, in 2006.

Marijuana law reform was the #1 issue at Change.org, the #1 question at Change.gov Round 1, the #4 question at Change.gov Round 2 (and 1st in “National Security”), and is currently #1 in the “Citizens Briefing Book” again at Change.gov (currently at 68,290 “points” vs. 58,910 for bullet trains in #2).  The notion of discussing legalization as a policy option has recently been broached by the Attorney General of Arizona, the El Paso City Council, and just this morning on my local progressive talk radio show by an incoming Oregon freshman legislator Jefferson Smith.

No wonder Change.org got blacked out in the US media – it’s not as if any Americans are talking about the issue of legalization.  Apparently a jet plane crash landed in the Hudson River.  Move on, nothing to see here…

Change.org – Ideas for Changing America: Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana

I looked over at the sidebar widget and saw that our Change.org Idea for Legalization dropped to 1,074 votes!  What?!?  It was at over 8,800 last I checked!

Then I surfed over.  Don’t panic, all is well.  We’re at 10,749 votes, still the top-rated idea.  The problem is they didn’t program their Flash widget to handle five digits – too many votes.  We’ve overwhelmed them with “V10K”!

Surf over to Change.org and let’s push it up to “V20K” by the deadline, which is this Thursday @ 5:00PM Eastern.