GAB sets historic recall elections for Walker, Kleefisch
By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel
Updated: 11:36 a.m.
Madison - State elections officials ordered a set of historic recall elections Friday, making Scott Walker the third governor in the nation to face a recall and Rebecca Kleefisch the first lieutenant governor to face one.
The Government Accountability Board, voting unanimously Friday, also set recall elections for four Republican state senators. One of those senators, Pam Galloway of Wausau, resigned earlier this month, but the recall election will be held anyway. One or more Republicans can run in her place.
"This is the recourse available to the people of Wisconsin when their public officials act in such an egregious fashion," said Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
Ben Sparks, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said he was confident the public would vote to keep Walker and Kleefisch in office.
"There was little doubt that union activists would be able to rally their liberal base to force this expensive and baseless recall election," his statement said. "Regardless, Wisconsinites in every corner of the state are already hard at work defending Governor Walker and Lieutenant Governor Kleefisch from the union bosses who are desperately trying to return our state to the failed liberal policies of the previous administration."
Primaries will be held May 8 and general elections June 5. For races that do not require primaries, the general elections will be May 8 - less than six weeks away.
Primaries are expected in most races, but which ones have primaries won't be clear until April 10, the deadline for candidates to file their nomination papers. Holding the recall election is expected to cost $9 million, and that figure will double if there is a primary for governor or lieutenant governor.
Just two other governors have faced recall elections in the country's history: North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. Both were defeated.
Joshua Spivak, who maintains a national blog about recall elections, said no other lieutenant governor in the country has faced a recall election.
The board also voted 5-0 to post on its website databases of all those who signed the petitions.
"I think it would be very, very positive for the public to see what has been done in this recall and make it transparent," board member Gerald Nichol said.
The board had earlier made available on its site copies of all the petitions, but they are not searchable. The database, which could be posted as early as next week, will include the names of signers but not their addresses. Board spokesman Reid Magney said the board may include links next to each name that people can click on to see an image of the petition page where the signature appears.
Four or five names will be removed from the database because they are listed as confidential voters who can keep their names off poll lists because of domestic abuse or other safety reasons, according to the board.
Tea party groups have already posted their own searchable databases of the petitions against Walker and the senators, but it does not include all signers and board officials have said it includes data entry errors.
The board determined there were 900,939 valid signatures to recall Walker, 67% more than the 540,208 needed to trigger the election. They eliminated more than 30,000 signatures that recall organizers submitted in January.
The board deemed 808,900 signatures against Kleefisch were valid. The same number was needed to recall her as for Walker, which is equivalent to 25% of the total votes cast in the November 2010 election for governor.
Among those removed from the petitions were more than 4,000 each for Walker and Kleefisch. Those who signed twice had one signature counted and one eliminated.
Other signatures were removed for a range of reasons, such as providing an incomplete date or listing a post office box instead of a street address.
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