As I write this, the Government Accountability Board (GAB) is asking a circuit court judge to call elections for six senators on July 12 and extend their deadline for certifying signatures for three more recall petitions.
The GAB has finished the work on six of petitions—all Republicans—while the three others—all Democrats—are still works in progress.
(You can find everything you ever wanted to know about the recalls on the GAB's handy recall page.)
Republicans threw a shite fit when GAB announced it would need an extension and even called for the ouster of the GAB's chief, Kevin Kennedy. Seems that the GOP—or its lawyers—wanted the agency to ensure that all of the potential recalls were going to be held on the same day, July 12.
Now, if the GAB does get its extension, it's likely that any recall of a Democratic senator would be held a week after the Republican recalls—July 19. So it doesn't seem to be a big deal on the face of it. But Republicans have been throwing temper tantrums in every venue lately, since the regular rule of law just doesn't work for them these days.
Of course, they've got plenty of reasons to be blowing a gasket. The GOP currently holds a five-seat edge in the state Senate. That body could easily flip in July if three seats flip, stymieing Republicans' attempt to turn Wisconsin into Texas.
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Then again, if recalls against Democrats are delayed, then voters would go to the polls knowing that the Senate could flip back again. So who knows how that will shake out.
Anyway, back to my main point: Republicans are crying foul that the GAB couldn't finish their work by today's court-imposed deadline.
So what gives?
Well, according to papers filed by the GAB (actually, the Department of Justice, acting on behalf of the GAB), it's simply overwhelmed with work.
“GAB staff conducted simultaneous reviews of roughly 200,000 signatures, as well as challenges, rebuttals and replies offered by the petitioners and Senators,” the GAB stated. “But we have had limited staff resources to deal with an unprecedented volume of work. It has simply taken longer than we anticipated.”
Remember, recalls are incredibly rare in Wisconsin. Not only that, but the deadlines in the state statutes governing recalls are incredibly tight. So dealing with nine recall petitions—plus challenges, plus verifying signatures—is an enormous task.
Remember, too, that the GAB asked the state Legislature for $40,000 to help them staff up. Not surprisingly, Republicans are sitting on this request, thereby ensuring that the GAB can't do its work on time.
So there's the amount of work involved.
Then there's the kind of work involved.
Now, Republicans didn't really put up much of a fight. Although they hired a great attorney from Michael Best and Friedrich—Eric McLeod—he just doesn't have a whole lot of ammunition. He attempted to argue that all of the Republican recall efforts should be thrown out based on a technicality. But the GAB saw right through that ploy and overruled his objections.
The Republican senators also attempted to challenge that validity of some of the signatures, of course, because the signers lived outside of the district, for example, or whatnot. This is all to be expected.
McLeod, acting on behalf of River Hills' Sen. Alberta Darling, put up a fairly inspired defense in Tuesday's hearing, arguing that the entire recall process should be scrapped, since the GAB cannot verify every signature on the petitions. “Senator Darling points to a signature by 'Adolf Hitler' as proof of the ease with which a circulator of a recall petition can manipulate the process.” (Of course, McLeod didn't mention that a 'Bill Pocan' signed a petition for the recall of Democratic Sen. Bob Wirch, that Pocan died 20 years ago and was the father of state Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat.)
Darling, via McLeod, also argued that “the entire recall petition process is 'devoid of any meaningful check or balance' and that it results in the disenfranchisement of those electors who oppose the recall.”
The GAB didn't buy McLeod's argument, saying that signatures are presumed to be valid unless the GAB's dual reviews and challenges from the candidate to be recalled prove otherwise. The burden of proof is on the candidate, not the petition circulators, to argue that a signature should be struck.
And what about the disenfranchisement of Darling's supporters?
“One could argue that the recall petition process actually provides an additional franchise because those who oppose the recall will have an additional opportunity to show his or her support for Senator Darling by voting in a recall election, if one is called,” the GAB's legal counsel wrote in a memo.
Nicely done, GAB.
On to the Democrats.
The GAB says that the challenges to the petitions of the Democratic senators—Wirch, Jim Holperin and David Hansen—are much more complex and require more effort.
Republicans have argued that the Democrats and their attorney are throwing everything they have into these challenges to as a stalling tactic.
So let's take a look at what they've got.
According to a memo written by the Democrats' attorney, Jeremy Levinson, the Republican Party of Wisconsin spent almost $100,000 to pay people to circulate petitions. More than $91,000 went to Kennedy Enterprises, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., with a nasty reputation in other states. The folks hired by Kennedy basically travel around the county, circulating petitions for whatever is needed, and get paid by the signature.
Yes, you read that right. They get paid by the signature.
Now, this pay-to-sign deal is illegal in Wisconsin if you are registering people to vote. That makes sense, since it gives petition circulators an incentive to fabricate signatures or misrepresent their intent when soliciting signatures.
But remember what I said about Wisconsin recalls? That they're incredibly rare? Well, because they're incredibly rare no one thought to outlaw pay-to-sign rackets for recall petitions. So, it's legal. But it sure ain't ethical.
So Republicans relied on this out-of-state outfit to handle its recall petition circulation. That should be a pretty neon-like sign indicating that there isn't a whole lot of enthusiasm for their cause. But, you know, appearances. How would it look if they couldn't even get one Democrat on a recall ballot?
Anyway, the Democrats are arguing that a whole host of problems stem from the paid circulators. They filled out the forms themselves, the Democrats argue, and misrepresented their objective when approaching potential signers.
“The only incentive was to fill petitions for purported signatures,” the Democrats' memo states. “They filled pages of petitions with names; they got paid; and they left Wisconsin with absolutely no reason to care whether a recall election is actually called.”
One circulator, a Sherri Ferrell, had an error rate of 35.42% in a sample of 384 signers.
“Ferrell was very deliberate in her fraud,” the memo states, “tailoring her message to each audience in order to induce them to sign. In Senate District 12, she fraudulently obtained hundreds of signatures from the Menominee tribe members by representing that the purpose of the petition was so 'support Indians,' 'support schools,' and 'support Democrats.' Almost one hundred Wisconsin residents executed affidavits or written statements evidencing that each was a victim of fraud or forgery.”
So the Democrats want all of the signatures submitted by these paid circulators—not just the individual signatures that are deemed to be invalid—thrown out. Which is why the GAB needs more time to figure out what happens next.
While the GAB may release its findings on the Democrats' petitions at any time, the board will meet on Wednesday, June 8, to announce what they'll do. Should be fascinating.
