Scott Walker recall, Wisconsin (2012) - Ballotpedia - 1 views
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An effort to recall Scott Walker, a Republican elected in 2010, from his position as the Governor of Wisconsin was launched in November 2011. Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) and independent candidate Hariprasad "Hari" Trivedi in the recall on June 5, 2012. A primary election took place May 8.[1]
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Only two governors in history have been recalled - North Dakota Governor Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California Governor Gray Davis (D) in 2003.[8]
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Democrats would have likely have gone after him sooner, but under Wisconsin law incumbents are not eligible for recall until they have been in office for a year.
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David Brandt, a Walker supporter, submitted the first recall petition on November 4, 2011, on behalf of the "Close Friends to Recall Walker" committee. Democrats denounced the move as a Republican tactic - once the petition was filed, Walker could legally begin collecting unlimited campaign donations for the recall.[9]
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On November 28, organizers said they reached 300,000 signatures - more than half the number necessary.[14]
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Randy Bryce, treasurer of the Walker Recall PAC, said they were specifically targeting Republicans and Independents and hoped to work with United Wisconsin. "If they don't have enough and they need some more, well, here you go. It's kind of like an insurance policy," he said.[16]
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On December 15, organizers announced they had collected over 507,000 signatures and had a new goal of 720,277 signatures, a third of the votes cast in the 2010 gubernatorial election.[18]
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A human operator verified the name, correcting any errors before it was entered into a database. The databases could then be used to check for duplicate signatures.[22]
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Under state law, Walker had only 10 days to challenge the validity of the petitions starting on January 18. However, as GAB officials were not able to readily provide Walker with the signatures against him, Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess extended the period to 30 days from when Walker received the full petitions.
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Walker asked the GAB to review a challenge of the signatures conducted by two tea party groups, but GAB officials said state law does not allow them to consider challenges by third parties.
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This article from ballotpedia highlights the process for handling a recall. The verification of signatures is particularly interesting in the Wisconsin case as the time frame which is typical when accumulating signatures was breached, and in turn extended by a circuitry court. Had the court reached a different decision, the entire recall process in Wisconsin may have been avoided, and would have in turn saved large amounts of time and money which could have been put to better use serving the people of Wisconsin.
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A very detailed of the Wisconsin recall election of 2012. It goes over all aspects of the election and the path that is taken to obtain a recall.