Judge doubles time GAB has to review recall signatures

JSOnline ^ | 1-25-12 | Patrick Marley

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Madison - A Dane County judge on Wednesday doubled the amount of time state election officials could have to review an unprecedented number of recall signatures filed against Gov. Scott Walker and five other Republicans.

That will give the Government Accountability Board 61 days instead of 31 days to examine the petitions and determine whether recall elections should be held this summer.

Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess also granted the Republicans more time to challenge the signatures. Their challenges will be due next month, and the accountability board will take those challenges into account as it determines whether recall elections are required.

Niess said that further extensions were possible, but that he wanted to avoid long delays in holding any elections.

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The accountability board went to court Friday to seek more time, saying the 31 days provided in state law to review the signatures were not sufficient in these cases because it has to review an estimated 1.9 million signatures asking to recall the six officials.

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The board has said it cannot provide a precise estimate of how much time it will need, and that has frustrated Democrats seeking the recalls. They argued in court the accountability board should follow the process it has in the past to review petitions instead of creating databases.

The 31-day clock for the accountability board started Jan. 17, the day petitions were filed. A separate 10-day clock started ticking the same day for the recall targets to challenge the signatures against them.

Niess extended those time periods as well and said each recall target's time period would not begin until he or she had received copies of the petitions against them.

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Wisconsin Recall Signature Verification Extension Ping

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FTA:

Walker and Kleefisch have not received all of their petitions because the accountability board is still verifying whether its staff has properly electronically scanned them all. The accountability board’s plan is to provide copies of all of Walker’s petitions by Friday and all of Kleefisch’s petitions by Feb. 2, said Lewis Beilin, the attorney for the accountability board.

The governor and lieutenant governor will each get 30 days, instead of 10, to review their petitions, according to the judge’s order.

The four senators facing recall are Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, the majority leader; Pam Galloway of Wausau; Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls; and Van Wanggaard of Racine.

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"I had no idea there were this many Donald Ducks in Wisconsin!"

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Gov Walker’s State of the State live tonight at 8PM EST on C-SPAN.

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(ping)

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7 PM Central Time

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more time to weed out Minnie, Mickey, Donald and Adolf