They just ignore the rules when they want to avoid dealing with something:
White House removes petition seeking honors for cat
An official White House website that asks for petitions from voters has apparently killed a move to get an honorary seat for a cat who came in third in a U.S. Senate race.
If the Obama White House can side-step important issues like that and get away with it, they can easily ignore secession petitions.
There are a lot more liberaltarian lost causers on this site than I previously imagined.