Posted on 06/05/2012 6:07:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Over the weekend, Gov. Scott Walker told reporters that he hadn't made any preparations for a recount. Greta Van Susteren put the question to Wisconsin AG J. B. Van Hollen instead, as well as questions of enforcement and perhaps some competition from the Department of Justice. Van Hollen also discusses voter fraud, and the need for the voter ID law that is presently on hold in Wisconsin:
A recount would probably not involve the state's Attorney General, not unless there was evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the vote tabulation. Recounts would either be triggered by a secretary of state or the candidates themselves. Democrats are certainly preparing for the possibility, as Politico reports:
Brace yourself: Wisconsin Democrats say they are preparing for the event that the hotly contested recall race could drag on for weeks, or even longer.
Floating the prospect of a recount is, of course, a message that bolsters the party’s claims that the race is closer than people think and that it will go down to the wire — despite polls showing Walker with the lead. …
“We’re very much anticipating that there’s a chance that we could be in a recount scenario,” said Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. He said the party will have more than 440 lawyers in the field on Tuesday “doing election protection activities but also tasked with recount preparation, making sure that we know where absentee ballots are at, making sure that we have a strong handle on what’s happening out there.”
If the two candidates finish within a half-percentage point of each other, the state will conduct the recount itself on request from the losing candidate. A recount in a race that had a wider margin of victory would have to get funded by the candidate entirely. We saw this in the Kloppenburg/Prosser race last year, and the recount result was that Prosser still won by thousands of votes. A recount won’t be fruitful unless the gap is in the hundreds, and even then, as Van Hollen notes, the state of Wisconsin has gotten pretty good at conducting elections out of necessity over the last year and a half.
It would be an ugly ending to an ugly process, as Byron York writes at the Washington Examiner. Rumors of a love child raced through blogs opposing Walker, only to later be totally debunked and some group called the “Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op” exposed as a smear organization. In the end, York doesn’t think today’s race will be all that close, because Wisconsin voters like what Walker has done:
Despite much talk about the polls “tightening” in the past few days, Walker has held a consistent, if narrow, lead over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett. Perhaps even more discouraging for organized labor are polls showing that voters not only support Walker — they support the heart of Walker’s reforms.
Requiring unionized public employees to pay more for their pensions and health coverage? Seventy-five percent public support, according to a new Marquette Law School poll. Limiting collective bargaining for most public employees? Fifty-five percent support. And when the Marquette pollsters asked whether Wisconsin was better off or worse off as a result of Walker’s changes, voters said better off, 54 percent to 42 percent.
So it’s no wonder the anti-Walker movement, an effort that started with elected lawmakers literally fleeing the state rather than do their jobs, is ending with one last show of ugliness and rancor. Walker knew making fundamental changes would be hard. He probably didn't think it would be this hard. But if the polls are correct, he is about to enjoy a final vindication.
Or perhaps semi-final, if the Democrats end up forcing a recount. If Walker wins by more than a couple of percentage points, though, it's doubtful that even the unions will want to spend the money on yet another waste of time.
great use of member dues, dems. again.
Of course they will try to force a recall. They will lie, cheat, fabricate votes, lie some more and if that doesn’t work they’ll hold their breath until they turn blue.
Let’s hope the adults remain in charge. Indiana and Wisconsin make great bookends for ILL-ANNOY, but that is a hopeless proposition to try to get things to change here.
I’m down here in Tampa. My palms are sweating for Walker/Wisconsin and it has nothing to do with the humidity.
If they steal this...Walker for VP!
I’ve had enough of these people. This is Wisconsin. Imagine what they’re going to do in the general? They should all go to hell for what they’ve done to this country - sooner rather than later.
Then on to Michigan where we made great gains on the unions but our republicans are backsliding because they’re cowards. A little national attention and heat should put some steel in their spines.
Personally, I hope the unions go broke doing this crap. Keep spending your members pension funds on crap like this, sooner or later you'll be forcing them to wake up to the rampant corruption of the labor unions.
If this was going to be close Walker would have had the recount plan in the back pocket.
It won’t be close. We Wisconsinites have been waiting for this day...today is the day we crush them.
A method needs to be found to bill the union thugs who provoked this whole ordeal. If they don’t get hit in the pocketbook, they’ll keep doing it on the public tab.
Hopefully, it will be a landslide. That would ordinarily not trigger a recount. Of course, nothing would stop these thugs. They will want a recount again and again until they get the result they want.
With Eric Holder unleashing the Department of “Social” Justice on Wisconsin, the Feds may require a recount until Barrett wins, no matter what the Actual vote shows.
Pray for Wisconsin.
Last I checked, the unions were not more powerful than God.
Or, do what the state dem legislature did when they knew they would lose a vote......run away to MN.
Or, do what the state dem legislature did when they knew they would lose a vote......run away to MN.
They are not welcome here. They ran to IL.
I suspect Walker won’t walk away with this election.
He’ll run away with it!
democRats do not lose close elections. Stewart Smalley is the prime example.
He lost. The dems forced a recount. Every decision in that recount went in Franken’s favor. EVERY one.
He ended up being the 60th seat in a fillibuster-proof senate in order to get the 0bama/communist agenda shoved down America’s throat.
That's right. I knew they ran somewhere.
I suspect Walker won’t walk away with this election. He’ll run away with it!
Amen!
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