Challenges to Recall Petitions



Recall petitions are checked by the GAB.

     The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) has filed a challenge to the recall petitions against Sens. Dave Hansen, Jim Holperin, and Robert Wirch.  The DPW has approximately 200 sworn statements from voters who report irregularities with the recall petitions.  These include people who claim they never signed the petitions, people who were told they were signing petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker, support local education, support local parks, or recall Republican Senators.  "Thousands of Wisconsin citizens fell victim to lies and misinfomation spread by the circulators, and the papers submitted [by the signature collectors] contain a river of omissions and wrong informations," said Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona).  Attorney for the DPW, Jeremy Levinson, went on to say that it appeared that many names on the petitions appeared to have been copied from the phone book, including the deceases father of Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison).     Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Mark Jefferson responded by calling the challenge "an expensive waste of time, couched in hyperbole and hot air" and predicted that even if the challenges of the signatures were upheld they would fall far short of the numbers needed to invalidate the petition.  All three petitions contained thousands of signatures more than required for force a recall election.
     Kennedy Enterprises of Colorado Springs, CO was paid $92,000 to circulate petitions against Democratic senators, and Democrats have also claimes that circulators from Florida, Colorado, and New York claimed to live at invalid addresses.  No one was available at Kennedy Enterprises when the Wisconsin State Journal attempted to contact them for comment.  It is not clear at this time how these challenges will effect the recall election scheduled for July 12, 2011.