UPDATE: Wow, was I wrong. The GAB just certified the recalls against the three Democratic Wisconsin state senators despite acknowledging fraud in all three recall campaigns. Short version: They disallowed signatures where it was proven by challengers that fraud was committed but did not dismiss enough to overturn the petitions. I'm stunned and disappointed. I thought they would find a clear enough pattern of fraud to disallow thousands of signatures but instead disallowed only a few hundred. The rule of law takes another blow in Wisconsin. I'm tired of being optimistic. My next prediction: The Wisconsin Supreme Court will manufacture a 4-3 split decision to uphold Governor Walker's union-busting bill within the next week. It will include language saying it shouldn't be used as precedent.
The legislature just passed a Voter ID bill saying even one fraudulent vote was too many, but election fraudsters can forge hundreds of signatures and misrepresent recall petitions to signers and the GAB gives it a thumbs-up.
Chaos rules in America's Dairyland. Excuse me while I go throw up.
Six Republican Wisconsin state senators are already scheduled for recall elections on July 12th. Three Democratic state senators have also had petitions for recall filed against them, but today, Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board is hearing arguments for and against dismissing those recall petitions due to massive fraud and misrepresentation perpetrated by people who circulated the petitions.
Wisconsin Eye is televising the hearings here. It's clear from the testimony that the recommendation from GAB staff is to disallow thousands of signatures based on documents and affidavits submitted by attorneys representing the Democratic Senators.
There was a spirited debate earlier between the retired judges who make up the board and attorneys representing the filers of the fraudulent petitions. The fraudsters' attorneys made the argument that there is no amount of proven illegal activity which would allow the board to dismiss all signatures submitted by a specific circulator. They argue that fraud would have to be shown for each individual signature, an absurd notion.
Much of the proven fraud was in the form of misrepresenting the purpose of the petitions. One board member asked if a page of 10 signatures could be disallowed if it was shown that 8 of the 10 signatures were obtained by the circulator's misrepresention of the purpose of the petition. The attorney answered no, that the law would only allow the board to disallow the 8 known fraudulent signatures.
It's a desperate argument to say the least. Carried to its logical conclusion, I could personally hand write 750,000 fraudulent signatures on a recall petition against Governor Walker between now and January, submit them, and Walker would then have to produce approximately 250,000 individual affidavits in order to dismiss the recall...even if Governor Walker had video of me personally filling in signatures on dozens of pages of petitions.
It's fairly evident that at least one of the petitions against the Democrats has a good chance of being thrown out. One of the recall organizers, David VanderLeest, is clearly not happy that his recall petition is in danger of being tossed. He issued this statement:
Kevin Kennedy (the board's director and general counsel) and the WI GAB should not be able to be so reckless and bias with elections in the state of Wisconsin, if they want to be taken serious by the voters. It is apparent to the average person; the GAB is acting partisan, in its decision to schedule Republican and Democrate recall elections on different days.
In an earlier press conference Kevin Kennedy stated "We are the referees, and the referees in any situation are going to be criticized." This is the equivalent to the Packers being penalized 120 yards, and the Bears 0 yards. Did I mention 90 penalty yards were in the red zone? I think you get the picture. This is why I asked for Kevin Kennedy’s resignation and for the Senate and Legislature to immediately defund the GAB and replace it with a body that is under the watchful eye of the voter.
Stay tuned. This should get pretty heated.
2:07 PM CDT: GAB staff attorney just testified that staff does not advise rejecting any petitions for technical reasons regarding dates and residency requirements. Some of the logic used was a little weird, in my opinion, but they advise allowing the petitions where the address of the circulator was questioned.
He's now addressing the larger fraud allegations. I have to admit, I'm getting a little concerned that they are going to allow everything.
2:40 PM CDT: Staff attorney (finally) says he thinks there is a significant pattern of deception in the Dave Hansen recall petitions. That is the only real question for the board. If they agree with the staff attorney, they have to disallow large numbers of signatures.