The top elections officials in the state decided Tuesday to allow only signers and circulators of recall petitions to prepare the petitions and to allow technical college students to use their student IDs to identify themselves at the polls.

At their meeting Tuesday, the Government Accountability Board voted to reverse their decision from Sept. 9, which stated that technical college IDs could not be used to vote. They decided unanimously, based on the lesser likelihood of fraud with technical school IDs.

The board also voted Tuesday to ensure more security with recall petitions. They decided an individual must have their signature examined by both the electors and the circulators, and only a signer or circulator can prepare a petition.

GABelections specialist David Buerger and Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act Coordinator Katie Muller spoke to theGAB’s strategy for review of recall petitions.

Currently, Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four Wisconsin senators may face recall elections.

He said there are presently 300,000 petition pages of the 540,208 needed by Jan. 17, 2012, for a successful recall. Petitioners declined providing a more updated figure at the meeting.

Buerger and Muller addressed concerns over the hiring of temporary staff to assist in the review process. They said they would be screening for partisan tendencies in their potential employees.

“The overarching priority for the staff we are hiring is that they are coming from a non-partisan basis,” Buerger said.

There were also substantial concerns over what constitutes a legitimate signature on a recall petition.

Muller said suspicious signatures, such as “Mickey Mouse,” on recall petition papers would be judged as acceptable as long as they include a valid date and Wisconsin address.

“We base signatures on a presumption of validity, so it may not be eliminated based on the thought that this is a valid signature,” Muller said.

Buerger said the suspicious signatures will be flagged, but not removed unless challenged.

Additionally, Muller said addresses on IDs will be considered acceptable as long as the review staff can tell there is in fact an address on theID.

She said the requirements include a street number and name, a full date and the review certificate of the circulator, including the circulator’s name and address.

“The review process is the same as it was in earlier recalls for reviewing these recall petitions,” Muller said.

Buerger said he expected the review staff to ask the courts for up to at least 60 days to process all the petition pages, up from the courts’ normal allowance of 31.

The second speakers at theGABmeeting were Chair of the Voter ID Campaign Sharrie Hauge andGAB Co-Chair Reid Magney, who spoke about the “Bring it to the Ballot” campaign to educate voters about the new law.

She said the media used for publicizing the campaign include a website, videos, a texting program, print and billboard ads, a toll-free number and radio ads.

Hauge said the campaign focuses on reminding voters to bring their IDs to the polling place and lets them know they can obtain free Wisconsin IDs from the Department of Motor Vehicles if they do not already have one.

Magney said theDMVwill issue a free Wisconsin ID if a voter can present a valid birth certificate, utility bill or other proof of presence and residency.

“It’s important that we get that message out there right before [the recall] elections,” Magney said.

He said the campaign is scheduled to launch Jan. 2.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.