William A. Jacobson
Legal Insurrection
1/5/2012
You would think that Wisconsin state officials charged with ensuring the intergrity of elections, including the recall against Gov. Scott Walker, would want to check for duplicate, fictitious and fraudulent signatures on recall petitions.
But no. As I reported in November, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board decided that it would not check signatures. The GAB stood by that position even after a highly publicized case of someone bragging he had signed recall petitions 80 times.
Walker supporters have organized their own signature check operation in anticipation of a filing by recall forces.
But a judge is Wisconsin had just ordered the GAB to do its job, as reported by JSOnline, Judge rules for Walker campaign in case against state election officials:
A judge ruled Thursday that the state Government Accountability Board needs to take more aggressive action to vet recall signatures that are expected to be submitted in two weeks against Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican office holders.
The ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis came in a case filed Dec. 15 by Walker’s campaign committee and Stephan Thompson, executive director of the state Republican Party, asking Davis to order the accountability board to seek out and eliminate duplicate and fictitious signatures and illegible addresses in recall petitions….
In issuing his ruling, Davis said, “Counting the signature of Bugs Bunny is something only a lawyer could make seem OK.”
Bugs Bunny was not available for comment.
Update: Professor Jacobson writes more in Grow some
