Alabama is one of 20 states - and counting - where residents have petitioned the White House in the days after the Nov. 6 presidential election,

from the United States and create their own governments.

The informal petitions are created by citizens on the White House web site under a "We the People" program created by the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama was re-elected Tuesday, defeating a challenge from Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

was filed Friday by Derrick B. (no last name given) of Mobile. It was the third petition filed overall, following an initial petition filed Wednesday, the day after the election, on behalf of Louisiana. The second petition was filed Friday on behalf of Texas.

"We petition the Obama Administration to peacefully grant the State of Alabama to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government," the petition reads.

The Alabama petition had received 4,426 signatures as of Monday morning.

Other states

include Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee.

The "We the People" program allows anyone 13 or older to create or sign an online petition seeking federal government action on a range of issues, according to

Then it’s up to the petition creator and signers to build support for the petition by gathering more signatures.

The White House requires a minimum of 150 signatures for a petition to be visible on the web site, and at least 25,000 signatures within a month of its filing date before it will be reviewed by the administration. Petitions that don't meet that threshold are removed from the site.

"If a petition gathers enough signatures, it will be reviewed by White House staff and receive an official response," reads a statement on the web site. "We the People helps the White House understand the views of the American people and have a focused and civil conversation with them."

In making the argument for secession, the Alabama petition - like many of the others - draws on a quote attributed to the Declaration of Independence:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive."

Updated at 6:39 a.m. Monday to clarify the headline.