Fourth Stimulus Check Update: $2,000 Monthly Payment Petition Signed by About 1 in 70 Voters

A petition calling for monthly stimulus checks has been signed by around one in 70 American voters.

Stephanie Bonin created the petition last year to call on Congress to support adults with $2,000 monthly payments until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also asks Congress to send out $1,000 payments for children.

Bonin's petition is nearing its goal of three million signatures, which would make it one of the most signed petitions on Change.org. As of early Wednesday, the petition had amassed over 2.5 million signatures.

There were just over 168.31 million people registered to vote in the U.S. in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means the number of people to back Bonin's petition equates to around one in 70 voters.

Bonin created the petition after her restaurant in Denver had to shut down due to the coronavirus crisis.

"Our country is still deeply struggling," she wrote in an update posted on the petition's page recently.

"The recovery hasn't reached many Americans—the true unemployment rate for low-wage workers is estimated at over 20 percent and many people face large debts from last year for things like utilities, rent and child care.

"These are all reasons that checks need to be targeted to people who are still struggling and that Congress needs to learn from this past year. It took nine months for Congress to send a second stimulus check, and just moments to spend it."

She added: "Moving forward, Congress needs to make recurring checks automatic if certain triggers are met. No more waiting around for our government to send the help we need."

Bonin told Newsweek this week that she is confident the petition will soon reach its goal of three million signatures.

"People like me who have never had to go onto an assistance program are living an experience we've never lived and I think it's a unifying thing," she said.

"When people unify we can move mountains."

Bonin supported the relief passed by Congress, but said she didn't see it as going far enough and believes it would have been easier for people to weather the storm of the pandemic if they knew there would be consistent payments.

"I keep going back to how we run households and how we budget and every day we make decisions based on our money and that's always based on a finite amount of money whatever it is," Bonin added.

Eligible Americans have received three economic impact payments during the coronavirus pandemic.

Checks worth up to $1,200 were issued under the CARES Act which became law in March last year. The COVID relief package passed in December last year included $600 direct payments, and third payments for up to $1,400 started being sent out in March.

This graphic, provided by Statista, shows the number of registered voters in the U.S. from 1996 to 2020.