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Recall Day: WI AG addresses recount possibility as Democrats prepare a recount effort
Hotair ^ | 06/05/2012 | Ed Morrissey

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:

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 2012; democratcorruption; democrats; elections; recall; scottwalker; wisconsin; wisconsinshowdown
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To: SeekAndFind
A recount would probably not involve the state's Attorney General, not unless there was evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the vote tabulation.

If there is an election that includes democrat candidates that in itself is evidence of CRIMINAL WRONGDOING!

21 posted on 06/05/2012 6:40:39 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: MrB

Yup. I was thinking about Franken.

This time, they probably have a supply of ballots from dead voters ready.


22 posted on 06/05/2012 6:42:12 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: BitWielder1

In the last special election, the reporting of votes was withheld until the last minute by the Pubbie enclave of Waukesha. I’m guessing many other Pubbie election officials will do that this time also so that Milwaukee and Madison don’t have a goal to acheive with their “votes”.


23 posted on 06/05/2012 6:47:47 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations - The acronym explains the science.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Recounts would either be triggered by a secretary of state or the candidates themselves.

Our SOS is a nasty, bitter man, in a little job, who

1)changed the spelling of his name in order to imply that he was a close relative of the famous WI Progressive, Fighting Bob La Follette. He is related -- but very distantly. However, for years he has allowed Wisconsinites to believe that he is fighting Bob's grandson.

2) He demanded that a friend of mine (without any authority) remove his flag pole and American flag at a vacation cottage on Lake Michigan and move it "back into the woods where nobody can see it."

3)He refused to publish the Union reform law for weeks, thus delaying its application. All this was so that more school districts could rush through contracts before the new law took effect. That backfired big time because the school districts that rusched their contracts through are the same ones that had to lay off teachers and raise taxes. That is because they were saddled with the old, highy expensive, union-owned, health insurance and were not free to shop for better plans.

24 posted on 06/05/2012 6:50:40 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: SeekAndFind

I believe the county sheriff has the power to decide if federal help is wanted or even allowed in his county.

If that is correct, then the sheriff can throw their federal butts out, right now, no questions asked, if he so chooses.

Hopefully the sheriffs will assign deputies to every voting precinct, to seal and collect the ballot boxes just as soon as the polls close. We don’t want anybody going down the voting list, looking for people who didn’t bother coming to the polls, then submitting ballots on their behalf.

And we certainly DO NOT want any ballot boxes “found” in somebody’s car the next day.


25 posted on 06/05/2012 6:51:22 AM PDT by DNME (A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright. — Robert Heinlein)
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To: DNME

“And we certainly DO NOT want any ballot boxes “found” in somebody’s car the next day.”
I’ll bet Franken’s VW, with the trunk full of absentee votes, is on its way to Madison right now. (It worked for him!)


26 posted on 06/05/2012 7:10:48 AM PDT by Fireone (Hit the STOP button!)
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To: MrB
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.

A year ago, the GOP governor that presided over that mess was actually being considered as a presidential candidate. I still think Pawlenty could have done something to prevent the 'Rat theft of Norm Coleman's Senate seat.

27 posted on 06/05/2012 7:36:02 AM PDT by bassmaner (Hey commies: I am a white male, and I am guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Garbage bags full of ballots ‘unexpectedly’ found in car trunks in Madison and Milwaukee. Provided courtesy of the SEIU and the son of ACORN and with the complicit approval of DOJ elections observers.


28 posted on 06/05/2012 8:15:56 AM PDT by grumpygresh (Democrats delenda est; zero sera dans l'enfer bientot.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Dems = sore losers


29 posted on 06/05/2012 8:18:33 AM PDT by GOPJ ( "A Dog In Every Pot" - freeper ETL)
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To: Fireone

Weird Al upgraded to a 72 Seville for more ballot trunk space.


30 posted on 06/05/2012 8:47:14 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

sounds like another Soros stooge like our SOS here in MN.

NoriegaFace Ritchie is touring the state to fight against Voter ID being on the ballot in November.


31 posted on 06/05/2012 8:50:58 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: MNlurker; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; sickoflibs; stephenjohnbanker; DoughtyOne; Gilbo_3; ...

“...today is the day we crush them....”

MNlurker - What Is Best In Life?

“To drive your enemy before you, to crush dem, and to hear da lamentation of deyre wimmin....”

-Conan, The Barbarian


32 posted on 06/05/2012 8:59:21 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: SeekAndFind
For Dems, it's a re-re-re-re-"hold your head at this angle and squint"-"absence of a vote counts for the Dem"-"hey we won"-count.

And then any more "re-'s" go away permanently.

33 posted on 06/05/2012 10:24:21 AM PDT by fwdude
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To: SeekAndFind

If it ends up within a percentage point, then shouldn’t they be investigating the voter fraud, since Walker is ahead by over 7 points in most legitimate polls?


34 posted on 06/05/2012 11:01:30 AM PDT by Brown Deer (Pray for 0bama. Psalm 109:8)
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To: SeekAndFind

I expect a “recount”. Once the first count is completed, the commie union thug knuckledraggers will know how many “votes” they will have to “find” in closets, dumpsters and automobile trunks. You can always tell what the communists are up to by listening to what they accuse the GOP of doing.


35 posted on 06/05/2012 12:43:04 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Free Stuff or Freedom! You Decide 2012.)
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