I have been following the great news today:
Texas Voter ID Law stopped by DOJ
Wisconsin Voter ID Law ruled unconstitutional by Wisconsin judge
Four Wisconsin Senate Recall Elections to move forward
But the most interesting news resulting from the Wisconsin GAB meeting today seems to have been ignored so far by the media. This news is the hard numbers buried in the statement from GAB Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy.
While the headlines are about the four Senate recalls, the numbers reported by the GAB are amazing and seem to say Walker will be recalled!
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UPDATED with great comment from GeoffT below
Missing piece of the puzzle (7+ / 0-)
Is that the order that the GAB should check for duplicates was overturned last month by the Court of Appeals.
They have done all the work that they are required to do already; there is no basis for an extension of time to certify except the compliance with a judicial order that's not in place any more.
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So why the wait? See the numbers and my thoughts below the squiggle. Decide for yourself.
From today's Wisconsin GAB Recall Petition Update (bolding mine)
At the meeting G.A.B. Director and General Counsel Kevin J. Kennedy reported on the progress of the review of the petitions against Governor Walker and Lt. Governor Kleefisch. The Board’s staff has completed its first and second reviews of both petitions, and is currently working on the court-ordered duplicate search in the petitions. Before the duplicate review, staff has found:
Officeholder Sigs Required Sigs Submitted Sigs Struck by Staff Valid Sigs
Gov. Walker 540,208 931,042 25,495 905,547
Lt. Gov. Kleefisch 540,208 842,860 29,125 813,735
So what does this mean?
After two complete petition reviews, there are currently 365,339 valid signatures over the number required to recall Walker.
After two complete petition reviews, there are currently 273,527 valid signatures over the number required to recall Kleefisch.
This means that to invalidate the Walker petition, staff must prove that more than 40% of the remaining valid signatures are duplicates.
In the case of Kleefisch, they must prove that more than 33% of the remaining valid signatures are duplicates.
DUH. So why the wait?
The best speculation is that repugnants are doing every drag-your-feet dance known to man (and woman, but in their case known to man only) to hope the recall elections are scheduled AFTER college classes are over and voting students are off on break.
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UPDATE: GeoffT points out in the first comment that "the court-ordered duplicate search in the petitions" was overturned last month by the Court of Appeals, so there really is NO reason not to schedule these two recalls immediately.
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Keep following this issue and keep sending what you can to Recall Walker and the DailyKOS Wisconsin Recall Fund.