The Government Accountability Board officially authorized recall elections for four state senators at a meeting on Monday after unanimously rejecting multiple challenges to petitions brought by attorneys representing the senators.
The unanimous rejection of all four formal challenges for Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau; Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine; Sen. Terry Moulton, R-Chippewa Falls; and Sen. Pam Galloway, R-Wausau; ends the parties’ ability to challenge the signatures, so the recalls against them will move forward.
The board also approved an 11-day deadline extension requested by GAB Director Kevin Kennedy last Friday. The extension grants the GAB more time to review petitions for the governor and lieutenant governor. A Dane County judge is scheduled to approve the extension Wednesday morning.
If approved, the deadline for the GAB to finish the review process would be set to March 30. The extension would also move the recall election to May 8 unless primaries occurred, in which case May 8 would become the primary, and the general election would occur June 5.
The majority of the meeting was spent reviewing the challenges brought forward by the senators.
The most debated challenge asserted the 2012 district maps recently passed last year should be used as the boundaries when considering if a petitioner signer’s address falls within the senator’s district or not.
Michael Best & Friedrich attorney Joseph Olson, who represented all four senators at the meeting, said there was evidence both in constitutional language and in previous GAB staff memos that the 2012 boundary lines should be used.
“The present district that the incumbent officer represents according to a GAB staff memo that was adopted by this board are the new districts created by Act 43,” Olson said. “That has been the case since Aug. 24, 2011. The constitution requires the electors come from the district that he currently represents.”
Representing the recall committees, attorney Jeremy Levinson said there was nothing to suggest the 2012 lines would be used.
He also said the issue of what district lines to use was resolved long before the challenge was filed.
“Only a lawyer could suggest one set of electors petition for an elector, in which another set of electors votes. There is nothing in case law, Act 43, the constitution or statutes that suggests such a perplexing notion,” Levinson said.
He said the text of Article 43 specifically states the new district lines will begin to be used in the general election of November 2012.
Another challenge brought by the senators argued the number of signatures acquired on the first day of the petition gathering process should be disqualified.
“The statute says circulation can begin the day of registration,” Levinson said. “There is no dispute that when these committees registered for correspondence, the GAB indicated a registration period which included that day.”
The third challenge regarded the independent review project called Verify the Recall and its efforts to review the senator’s petitions. The board voted unanimously to deny the possibility of Verify the Recall’s challenges being factored into the board’s decision over which signatures are invalid against Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.
