More Wisconsin Shenanigans

Wisconsin Democrats have filed paperwork to recall 5 Republican state senators this summer. The signatures were gathered by volunteers, assisted by paid organizers. Wisconsin Republicans have also filed papers to recall 3 Democratic state senators, but there could be a problem.

Wisconsin Democrats, who have been waging a campaign to recall Republican state senators and take a majority back in the chamber, are now firing back at the Republican counter-campaigns to recall the Dems. On a conference call with reporters on Thursday morning, state Dem chair Mike Tate and attorney Jeremy Levinson predicted that they would able to successfully challenge the validity of much of the signature-gathering effort by Republicans — which Tate repeatedly called a “racket.”

“At the heart of the Republican effort from the start was a mercenary spirit that naturally used deception and fraud to gain signatures,” charged Tate. “In the coming days, you will see affidavits from citizens in these targeted districts who were deceived into signing petitions by the Republican roadies who often refused to identify themselves by their real names.”

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In addition, Tate said that the Dems had stories on hand of people being misled into signing: “We’ve had people lying saying this is in support of [Democratic state Sen.] Dave Hansen, not to recall Dave Hansen. There are going to be examples of these mercenaries who are paid to collect as many signatures as possible, not valid signatures.”

Also, Levinson said that Democrats would not even necessarily have to scrutinize all the individual signatures, looking for ones to disqualify. “We know as fact that they have had people circulating signatures who are legally prohibited from doing so. Those signatures should all be tossed,” said Levinson, also adding: “To circulate a petition, you either need to be a qualified elector [voter] in wisconsin or eligible to be a qualified elector in Wisconsin.”

This does sound very much like the problem that ACORN had. I thought Republicans hated ACORN! (IOKIYAR!) You don’t have to be an expert on election fraud to see that paying people per signature could lead to problems.

Huffington Post‘s Amanda Terkel has a story on one of the tricks used to get signatures on a recall petition for a Democratic senator:

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is planning to file a complaint to the state Government Accountability Board alleging that a Republican signature-gatherer offered alcoholic beverages to a group of women to get them to sign a recall petition against a Democratic state senator.

Although that’s not illegal in Wisconsin, it is strongly discouraged and, Democrats argue, evidence that Republicans don’t really have enough grassroots support for their recall campaigns.

Getting something of value in exchange for a vote is illegal, but not in exchange for a signature.

According to a draft of the Democratic complaint to the GAB, obtained by The Huffington Post from a Democratic source, a woman who was at John’s Main Event, a tavern in Burlington, Wis., with her friends on Feb. 27, “heard that someone was providing ‘shots’ to people if they signed a petition to recall State Senator Robert Wirch,” a Democrat.

The woman, who signed the complaint, said a bartender showed her the recall petition and told her that if she signed it, she and her friends would get free shots.

The full article has a recording of the woman being offered a shot in exchange for a signature and it also has the bartender’s Facebook page with the deal. I assume the thought in this case is more to be an annoyance to Robert Wirch? I doubt you would consider a person who exchanged a shot for a signature a likely or motivated voter.