Updated (Feb. 3): An appeals court has vacated a Waukesha County Circuit Court's order that state elections officials do more to ferret out duplicate signatures on Recall Walker petitions, saying the court erred in not allowing recall organizers to intervene in the case.
The decision by the Court of Appeals District IV panel based in Madison means Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis will need to re-hear the case, allowing for input from representatives of both campaigns — that of Gov. Scott Walker and the recalls.
"We conclude that the recall committees are entitled to intervene as a matter of right," the appellate court ruled. "It cannot be seriously disputed that the recall committees have an interest in the procedures that will be used to review their recall petitions and strike names."
(Feb. 1 story): Making petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker available online in a searchable database would be too costly and labor-intensive, a state elections leader told WisconsinEye senior producer Steve Walters.
In a WisconsinEye video interview Wednesday, Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the Government Accountability Board, said that groups who are considering entering the 153,335 pages into a searchable database have "thousands" of volunteers, while the GAB has help from 50 reviewers.
"A searchable database wasn't something that was practical or economically feasible from our standpoint," Kennedy told Walters.
"When we do our duplicate review, we may have a searchable database but it will be limited just to names. We will not include addresses in that because our focus is only to implement that part of the court's decision that deals with being proactively looking for duplicates."
WisconsinEye.com has the full 23-minute video interview.
The GAB Tuesday evening after weighing the legality of whether names and addresses of domestic violence victims or other signers could be redacted for personal safety concerns. The decision: No redactions were made because unlike voting, signing a recall petition did not carry an expectation of privacy.
began analyzing hard copies of the recall petitions last weekend, and have said they have nearly 10,000 volunteers nationally willing to help verify the validity of the petition signatures.
Recall organizers say they have signatures from more than 1 million state residents, nearly double the estimated 540,000 required to schedule a gubernatorial recall election that would be only the third in the nation's history.
How did the recall committee weed out duplicate signatures if they didn't create a searchable database of their own exactly? After all, it's your side claiming that the signatures were meticulously vetted, right?
The rational tone of your note seems inappropriate to the tenor of this thread. You want to add a bit of craziness and/or ad hominem attack to make it fit in? :-)
http://webapps.wi.gov/sites/recall/Recall%20Petitions/Governor/GOV%204551-4600.pdf McDuffie come on you've got to agree with me on this one, address written identically
The numbers of the first one are more rounded. the "I" in WI differs. The handwriting of the first one slants backward. The signatures--which is what counts--differ greatly.
Anyone---relative, friends, husband etc can fill in the columns except for the signature.
Give me a break they grow old together and start writing the same together?! The f, i, and e are identical and the penmanship is very feminine in appearance. I believe we will see Christine behind a jail cell soon on this one.
oh well what the hell. That is the dumbest thing ever. So the page can have all the same penmanship and the only thing that needs to look different is a signature? I can sign anyone's name 100 different ways, hell looking through some of these people just make a circle or a wavy line. What a waste, thank god for voter ID we can see the real results in a real election.
http://webapps.wi.gov/sites/recall/Recall%20Petitions/Governor/GOV%205951-6000.pdf "homeless" what a joke
Maybe we could have a company out of state do this for us just like they are printing our new Driver Licenses out of state and mailing them to us.
I can make up any name, any city, any signature and write homeless for the address and have 100,000 signatures in a weekend on paper. You support fraud of recall petitions is the only conclusion I make of this.
Lookie here: http://www.channel3000.com/politics/30373026/detail.html Appeals Court Overturns Ruling That GAB Look For Erroneous Signatures Petitions Turned In Last Month UpMADISON, Wis. -- A state appeals court has overturned a ruling by a Waukesha County judge that requires the Government Accountability Board to search for fake or duplicate signatures among the recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican lawmakers.The Wisconsin Court of Appeals vacated an order that would require state election officials to be more aggressive in ferreting out fake or duplicate signatures on recall petitions. The decision released Friday reverses a Waukesha County judge's decision and hands a victory to Democrats who wanted to intervene in a lawsuit related to recall signatures.Walker's campaign had sued the state Government Accountability Board, saying the GAB wasn't planning to be aggressive enough in tossing fraudulent signatures. Democratic recall committees wanted to intervene in the suit but were denied.The appeals court says the recall committees should have been allowed to participate.
Best not to plant the victory flag on the hill, until its decided which way the hill slopes.