Submitted by Mary Bottari on
Recall elections for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican senators are likely to be held on June 5 under an agreement presented in court by lawyers for the recall committees, the state Government Accountability Board (GAB) and lawyers for the state officials.
GAB was in court March 13 requesting extra time to review the recall signatures for the Governor and Lt. Governor. The agency's previous deadline for certifying the petitions was March 19, but it requested an 11-day extension. The deal, expected to be approved by Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess, would make the final deadline March 30. The election would then be set on a Tuesday six weeks past that point with primaries likely May 8 and a general election June 5. The agreement awaits the Judge's written order.
The GAB has not yet finished scanning the signatures for duplicates as has been demanded by recall opponents, but they did calculate that the total number of signatures turned in against Walker was 931,000 and 843,000 signatures against Kleefisch. The staff has disqualified 25,500 against Walker and 29,000 against Kleefisch, an error rate of approximately 3 percent.
Earlier in the week, the GAB voted unanimously that there were enough valid signatures filed against all four of the senators to prompt recall elections. The senators include Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Sens. Pam Galloway, Terry Moulton and Van Wanggaard.
Mary Bottari is a reporter for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She helped launch CMD's award-winning ALEC Exposed investigation and is a two-time recipient of the Sidney Prize for public interest journalism from the Sidney Hillman Foundation.
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