Walker’s campaign filed documents with the GAB on Monday saying that signature review needs to continue because it found a 10 to 20 percent error rate. And Walker attorney Steven Biskupic of Michael Best & Friedrich said that Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty and We the People of the Republic, two tea party groups, had organized a “Verify the Recall” effort to review signatures, but campaign finance laws prevented them from coordinating with Walker.
February 27, 2012
Gov. Scott Walker will not challenge any of the recall signatures.
With the deadline for the challenges coming at 5 p.m. today, Walker's campaign just announced that it faced "an impossible timeline" imposed by a Dane County Judge. The Government Accountability Board continues its review, however, with a March 19th deadline, and it might strike some signatures.
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Why not object to the 10 to 20% he's found so far that he thinks are not legit?
Would doing so be the equivalent of admitting ones he did not get to must be legit, freezing him out of objecting to them later?
This is an odd strategy, unless he just figures that he can't legitimately get a fair play from the courts, so why waste his time.
It would probably take more effort (and money) than it would be worth.
And Walker will need both for the actual election.
Whatever happens, I hope democrats waste bundles of their own money. They are excellent at wasting other people's money.
Verify the Recall took the volunteers he needed.
When the million sigs arrived, he knew there was no chance ... so it turned into the current scheme as an attempt to rally up his base (and donations).
Sure has right wing radio ranters all irate ....
I suppose from here on in, we should just make claims like forty-billion signatures. What do you mean you can't verify them all? Guess they all count!
Frankly, I'm surprised there's not an independent agency who has it as their job to verify each signature.
Walker is on a role. The last thing he needs is even a partial public victory for the Democrats.
The New Yorker magazine has a story on Scott Walker. Apparently was written by a member of WEAC.
It was almost like a parady of a left wing newsletter.
But I suppose, when you've lost New York City left wing elitists, wait. The Governor neverh had New York left wing elitists on his side anyway.
With the deadline for the challenges coming at 5 p.m. today, Walker's campaign just announced that it faced "an impossible timeline" imposed by a Dane County Judge.
The Dane County judge didn't impose any timelines. He extended it.
So, when the WI voters reject whoever the Dems convince to run, and Walker wins - again - then what? The Left loves teachable moments...what will the Left have learned?
What means remain for them to try to disenfranchise the voters in yet another legal election?
Walker is an idiot!.. was heard on loud bullhorn
Walker's silence speaks volumes about his lack of commitment to the rule of law..
Walkers refusal to challenge the signatures is not only disrespectful to his opponents, but to the people of Wisconsin.
Don't let him get away with it!
(psst.. the speaker puts down the bullhorn... hears whispers in one ear.. picks up bullhorn again)
Never mind!
It seems we're destined for a summer news cycle dominated by Obamacare, affirmative action, and Wisconsin-as-microcosm-for-America stories. If Democrats think these are winning issues for them they should be thrilled. But given the Left's preference for talking about contraception thieves and magic underwear, I get the sense they don't think these are winning issues.
if it's about the time it would take to challenge the sigs, should have considered that before volunteers wasted their time. I thought before this Walker was wanting time to raise money. Does he figure he is far enough ahead of the unionista network that it's better to move it up? I have to wonder if dragging it out longer and longer would just make the issue seem old and tired and less supportable. Oh..I suppose the rabid self interest of the public sector drones will never wane.
"The Dane County judge didn't impose any timelines. He extended it."
Unless the judge extended it to infinity, this is a nonsense statement.
Sounds like a smart move by Walker. It's in his interest to fight and win the recall election. By doing so, he will have obtained the voter's ratification of his union reforms as well as a big boost in his personal political profile nationally.
By stating that he will not challenge the recall because of a lack of time (rather than a lack of a meritorious basis), Walker also gets the benefit of blaming the whole sorry mess (and waste of tax dollars) on the Dems. He would have spared the taxpayers if he could, but as it happens he can't. As Clinton said in a different context, that means he'll just have to win. I suspect he will, and that it won't be close.
First problem for the Dems is finding an opponent to face Walker. They don't have one, and the lefties who have shown an interest in the race have already set themselves up to be seen as tools of the unions. Perhaps the voters will want the elected officials who are supposed to be looking out for the taxpayers' interests to be focused instead on serving those whose economic interests are the opposite of the taxpayers'. But I doubt it.
"The Dane County judge didn't impose any timelines. He extended it."
I didn't impose any restrictions, I just said what the kids could not do.
If you look at Journal Sentinel article , the True the Vote guy sez: 534685 legitimate + 228940 questionable + 55608 invalid signatures = Total of 819233 signatures without any of them thrown out.
There are still 14300 petitions for the group to go through. Being very generous (as I've gone through lots of signature pages myself) at 7 signatures per page, gives 100,100 more signatures for a grand total of 919133. Less generous at 6 gives 85800 or 905333 total sigs. Dems were off by over 100,000, even if all the signatures are legit. So, given Barrett received 1,004,303 votes in 2010, this is an A- if you're not grading on a curve. In my book, though, anything short of Barrett's numbers is an EPIC FAIL- you had 61...er...60 days, folks and the weather wasn't that bad!!! Bring on Kathleen Falk!
The Left loves teachable moments...what will the Left have learned?
@Tom
The lesson is fool me once, shame on you. Fool me — You can't get fooled again
A recall election likely will not be held before early May.
Why delay? With such a weak opposition currently in place, isn't in Walker's advantage to have the recall election date set as early as possible?
Garage. I note your improved avatar. Are you a member of that union?
@Michael
Hah. No. See here
"Fairness" as deployed in Wisconsin by the Governmental Accountability Board (stacked with Democrats by former Democrat Governor Jim Doyle) and a liberal Dane County judge means that Walker people are allowed thirty days to review petitions that the recall people took sixty days to obtain.
Walker is the adult in the room. Walker concluded that his opponents have gotten enough valid signatures. So, Walker is not going to go through a meaningless challenge effort.
The quicker they have this election, the better. Walker will gain from this move by showing people he wants the vote to happen, is not afraid of the vote happening, and is sure he will win. People know by now the so-called "one million" is bogus. The election will prove it. The whole idea of a recall will die a death from which it will not recover for decades. So far it looks like it will be Falk. As Blaska says, Bring it!
Hey recallers:
All that work for Kathleen Falk or Vinehout?
Gotta be like waking up Christmas morning, running downstairs, tearing off the wrapping on your biggest present, and finding the box is filled with socks.
"Fairness" as deployed in Wisconsin by the Governmental Accountability Board (stacked with Democrats by former Democrat Governor Jim Doyle) and a liberal Dane County judge means that Walker people are allowed thirty days to review petitions that the recall people took sixty days to
The G.A.B. is made up of six former judges, nominated by a panel of four Wisconsin Appeals Court judges, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, which they were unanimously. The current board contains two former Republican elected officials as members and Judge Thomas Barland, former Republican Representative from Eau Claire, as chairman.
"Gotta be like waking up Christmas morning, running downstairs, tearing off the wrapping on your biggest present, and finding the box is filled with socks."
Yeah, and they're not even organic vegan SmartWool socks. They're the wrong size. None match.
Ah but look for it. There it is - the union label! Sewn into every one. Permanently. Right between the big toe and second toe. Just what you asked for. Can't be removed. Will cause blister after blister.
Darn.
Merry Christmas.
Well I can see why the Tea Party help would be denied. No telling what those terrorist would have found.(sarc. off)
I have to believe that Walker planned on not challenging anything with this lame response. Merely taking the money and running. So he is not the paragon of righteousness many painted him to be. Just another politician.
How drear, and disappointing.
@garage mahal: I've noticed decreased methanogenic emissions in your ruminations and comments since you changed your avatar!
New comment format!
Smaller type.
This is all part of the war on old people and others with poor eyesight.
I blame Bush.
Walker is a fool for doing this.
We can now write off his sad and sorry self. I was hoping he would prevail but if the man can't fight for fair elections, he deserves to lose. And in an unfair election he will lose.
David said:
"New comment format!"
Althouse trying to get us to lean a bit to our left?
"New comment format!
Smaller type."
Heh, I thought it was my computer. It acts up sometimes.
Hey, have you heard the news? Angry Kathleen Vinehout's husband.....she and her husband are transplants from Illinois. He husband was an advisor for Blago. Its almost as though Walker is picking his own opponents in the recall election.
A WEAC puppet from Madwackistan, and a WEAC puppet form Illinois with close ties to Blago.
Walkers possible strategery..
The sooner the election, the less time an opponent has to mount a decent campaign war-chest.
Have to look at it from Walker's point of view. If he doesnt have a legitimate shot of getting enough signatures overturned in court, its really pointless to challenge any of them. Its just a waste of time and money that the Walker campaign can put towards the actual campaign itself.
It would be different if Walker was polling like 10 points behind Kathleen Falk, but he's not.
Finding fraud in the petitions isnt Walker's job, to be brutally honest. Thats the job of the GAB along with district attorneys in this state. Also, by not challenging signatures, Walker can continue to stay on the high road that he has occupied during this whole ordeal.
Just because Walker's campaign isnt going to challenge signatures doesnt stop any other person or entity who wants to file a challenge.
One other thing about Walker wanting the election sooner.....if I were a large employer looking for someplace to expand, I would not come to Wisconsin as long as there is a chance that a hard core leftist could be governor before the end of the year.
I think Walker is confident about winning. Get the election over with and get back to running the state.
Walker is a fool for doing this.
We can now write off his sad and sorry self. I was hoping he would prevail but if the man can't fight for fair elections, he deserves to lose. And in an unfair election he will lose.
Thats easy to say when its not your money that would have to be used for the legal challenges.
If Walker spends a couple million dollars in legal fees and gets 100,000 signatures tossed out, and still faces a recall election, whats the point?
@Jason
It's not true the GAB is responsible for challenging petition signatures. And no 3rd party groups or entities can formally file a challenge, by law, only the campaign.
Walker somehow finds way to not only make enemies to his he also screws people who support him. Those numbers could get smaller now. If I'd of spent any time verifying, I'd be pissed right now.
The comment format seems to have changed on all Blogger-based blogs. It changed on my blog as well.
As for the post topic -- Walker has to pick his battles. He should now turn to dealing with his potential opponents, who don't seem to be especially inspiring.
Re timeline, I think state law says election six weeks after certification. So that would be early May.
I think the Verify the Recall folks are going to submit their findings to the GAB anyway, under the constitutional right to petition the government. Then the GAB will reject them, because state statute (which CANNOT trump the Constitution) says that only the "recallee" can challenge. Then VTR can go to court on the constitutional issue.
Even if nothing comes of that, the number of suspicious signatures will be out there, and the database will be searchable online.
We've already seen that the recallers lied by 20% about the number of signatures they collected, so they could get that nice round 1,000,000 number out there for the media to swallow uncritically. That, and the number of outright fake signatures submitted, show that they DIDN'T make a serious attempt to verify them before submission, like they claimed.
I'm still disappointed that the Walker/GOP folks didn't ask for more help. I went through petitions for two days and would have been willing to do more, but they told me repeatedly that they were only going to have volunteers look at petitions for five days, and that they had enough people already to do data entry. I'd have been willing to help with that but they said they didn't need it.
Garage. Thanks. Inside baseball i guess
As someone who has been doing data entry for Verify, I have absolutely no problem with Walker not making a challenge. I expect the challenges to happen regardless.
Walker's campaign stated they didn't have time to verify 540,000 signatures. If they had the 3000 volunteers as claimed, that is only 6 per day. More than likely they never intended to challenge in the first place, lied to the court, and misled their volunteers. Jesus.
Just received from Verify:
Keep On Keepin' On
We've received many inquires about whether or not we will continue to enter data after today, since today was the final day for Governor Walker's campaign to enter challenges. Yes, yes, absolutely yes. We are still entering data - and there is still a great need for volunteers to help close out this project. You may have heard that Governor Walker chose not to challenge - but he has also asked that the Government Accountability Board consider the findings of our Verify the Recall effort so our work will remain in the spotlight.
We've also been asked why we're doing this if we can't be sure our work will matter. If the GAB turns a blind eye to our efforts, did we really make a difference? Yes, yes, absolutely yes. Sometimes the only way you can make things change is to prove that they need to be changed. Because of your help we are standing in the gap of government, doing a job that the GAB said they wouldn't do, posting our results online for all the world to see, upholding the integrity of our election processes, and use the pressure of public awareness to hold the GAB accountable and encourage reform - not just in Wisconsin but across the country.
When it is said a thing can't be done, and you do it; when it is said there are no problems, and you expose them, that is the beginning of change. Were we to have done nothing, nothing would have changed - and the stakes are too high to do nothing.
So, yes, keep on keepin' on. We are in the straightaway, but the race is not yet over.
Here are the preliminary results as of 2.26.12
Variables Analyzed*
Total Counts
Total Number of Pages Submitted
152,508
Total Number of Pages Processed
138,203
Number of Pages Unable to Access
undetermined
Number Records Processed
1,382,058
Blank Lines
557,469
Unique Records
819,233
Incomplete / Indecipherable Records
36,127
Sign Date Out of Range
14,763
Out of State
4718
Duplicate Signatures
5356
Total Ineligible Signatures
55,608
Total Signatures for Further Investigation**
228,940
Total Eligible Signatures based on data available
534,685
* margin of error +/- 7%, based on current redundancy ratio and duplications, omissions in data provided by GAB
** signatures that were partially marked through, illegible, possibly false, mismatched or otherwise compromised
Full Reports can be found at www.truethevote.org/resources/recall
Curious..
The 2000 Florida Supremes wanted to allow more time for the votes to be recounted.. But the Federal Supremes intervened.
I realise this is not Fla, votes have not been cast and the Wisconsin Supremes has not gotten involved.. but it is curious that this Wisconsin judge.. while not having the pressure of an entire country waiting for a result, as was the case in Florida 2000.. seems to be in some kind of hurry.
Whats the hurry garage?
My understanding is that the recall is well over the threshold, so why bother fighting something that's happening anyway? Better to take it as an opportunity. Fight and win the recall (I've yet to see anything that suggests that any Dem can win, which makes you wonder why they're doing it), bleed the Dems of time and money, leaving them vulnerable for the fall.
Well, it's on. I look forward to garage's next post touting the virtues of Falk and Vinehout. We've certainly heard enough about how bad Walker is, now let him tell us how great the challengers are.
Whats the hurry garage?
Walker was given 300% of the allotted time by statute. Do you think think verifying 6-12 signatures per day each by 3000 volunteers was asking too much? 12 sigs per day would have given them one million. There a ton of rumors flying around Madison right now, I wonder if recall sigs are his biggest concern right now.
Oh, duh, I forgot about the Dem primary, probably because the candidates are so lame. I believe the primary would be six weeks after the election is certified, Then six weeks after the primary, or mid-late June, would be the really big shew.
Care to share the gossip, Garage?
I think Simon's right. Plus, just because they had 3,000 volunteers doesn’t mean they had 3,000 people who could track down and verify identities. My guess is that those volunteers were highly dispersed without access to much besides an ability look for duplicates and "Mickey Mouse" type stuff.
You are acting pretty low in this thread, garage. I take back what I said nice about you earlier.
Of course there will be folks checking the claims for the Walker Verify group, and just for the heck of it I took the time to check one they contested, Alice W. Daceno who indeed exists and lives on the street in Racine written down by this 65 year old women who it appears has spelled out the W as Wolf-- her maiden name I would guess. I wonder how many other questionable signatures will be solved by a thirty second check.
I'm not sure how well the Walker campaign/GOP "used" their volunteers. There were quite a few at the victory center both weekdays I was there, and probably more on the preceding weekend.
But once that five-day period was over, when volunteers were done going over each page by hand and hand-writing things that weren't quite right like missing dates and fake names, they didn't ask us to do any more.
This was several weeks ago; like I said I'd have been happy to do computer data entry, but all I was asked to do is cold-call people on behalf of the GOP. I didn't want to do that, because I'm not a registered Republican, I don't vote straight party-line, and I hate getting cold calls so don't want to make them.
So...I think the GOP could have done a better job with this. I'll be interested to see what the VTR final results are, and how the probable Constitutional argument fares.
I want to see further breakdown of "questionable" signatures by VTR. I mean, "false" signatures and addresses should obviously be thrown out. Signatures or lines that are partially drawn through or illegible need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.
But in any case, lying about the numbers by 20% so you can claim 1,000,000 signatures is pretty pathetic. Wonder whether the media will revise their reporting.
Actually, I don't wonder.
"Just because Walker's campaign isnt going to challenge signatures doesnt stop any other person or entity who wants to file a challenge."
If that's true, bring it on...if it doesn't hold up the election in the meantime. I doubt there aren't enough to force the recall, but it might be helpful to the campaign and voter ID issue to show how much fraud there was.
Judge Niess Wouldn't Listen to their Pleas
As He Obediently Dropped to His Knees
His Rationale Was Specious
Was Rick Being Facecious
When He Threw In With the GAB/Union Sleaze?
And Leaker Chisholm Opened His Valise
Bice Didn't Have to Say Please
Chizze's John Doe Leaks
Enticed Bicey to Peek
And Clueless Nettesheim Felt No Unease.
And So the Torrent of Fraud and Crime
Perpetrated on WISCONSIN's Thin Dime
Democrat Union Whores
Lawless Esprit de Corps
Roars in ClusterFuck River For All Time.
I'm fine with Walker's decision even after a fair amount of data entry. The fourteen thousand volunteers and I were helping do the work that our government (Government Accountability Board) could not do. And guess what - because it was focused on an honest count, it couldn't be gamed by lefties.
This is what Democracy looks like.
I think Verify the Vote is going to determine the most egregious fraudsters and file criminal complaints.
It shouldn't be hard to find Mr. Duck and the circulator who attested under law that that signature was valid.
http://wisgop.org/sites/default/files/Donald%20Duck.JPG
or the odd looking address I looked up that was in the center of a national forest.
You do realize that according to name search, there are 2 people with the actual name Donald Duck in WI. Real people, who you want to disenfranchise.
Sorta like the 5 Scott Walkers that live in WI.
And Petunia ... those statistics of yours are missing the 14k pages that VTR did not analyze. You know, enough pages to take totals over 1,000,000.
But in any case, lying about the numbers by 20% so you can claim 1,000,000 signatures is pretty pathetic. Wonder whether the media will revise their reporting.
So rather than being an honest broker, you have to challenge every assertion as being an outright lie or a partial truth.
A sense of humor helps.
"Signatures or lines that are partially drawn through or illegible need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis."
-- Matters on the law. In the Franken recount, for example, the law said certain ways of marking were not allowed (such as scribbling out one mark and remarking a different ballot); if the law says a strike through of a signature invalidates it, it should be thrown out.
-- I think a really awesome commercial would be if Walker cut together the clearly false signatures, the ones outside the date range, the ones where people have come forward and said that they did not sign it, despite their name and address being written on there.
Also, it's good to know that that "count every vote" schtick from Franken and Florida wasn't a real, honest commitment to democracy, so much as it was a power play.
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