Names such as Adolf Hitler and Mickey Mouse will be allowed on petitions to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), as long as they include a valid date and Wisconsin mailing address on the petition forms, a state election board ruled on Tuesday.
“We will flag them,” Government Accountability Board elections specialist David Buerger said, “but we will not strike them without challenge.” The board unanimously approved the proposed standard.
The petition drive against Walker and his lieutenant governor had gathered about 300,000 signatures by the end of November. Organizers need 540,208 by Jan. 17 to force a recall vote.
The potential for false and fraudulent signatures is an ongoing concern for recall observers. One Wisconsin man told a local news station that he had signed “about 80” recall petitions.
While signing a petition multiple times is not necessarily illegal in Wisconsin – legality depends on intent – state law does dictate that each signature beyond the first be discarded. But the law also requires that signatures be accepted unless challenged and shown to be duplicative, meaning many of those duplicative signatures are unlikely to be weeded out, simply given the massive volume of signatures to review.
