Politics

Signatures of Hitler, Mickey Mouse acceptable on Scott Walker recall petitions

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Adolf Hitler and Mickey Mouse signatures will be counted in the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, so long as they are properly dated and bear a Wisconsin address.

The Government Accountability Board reviewing the petitions unanimously approved a plan that would allow questionable names to be counted if they are signed within the circulation dates and have a proper address, WISN Milwaukee’s Channel 12 is reporting. According to the ABC affiliate, the suspicious names will be noted as such, but will not be eliminated without a challenge.

“All signatures are given the basic presumption of validity,” said petition reviewer co-team leader Katie Mueller before the board. “So it may not be eliminated due to the fact that this is a valid signature on face value.”

“We may certainly note fictitious names — if we note them on the petition we will flag them — but we will not strike them unless challenged,” added David Buerger, another petition reviewer co-team leader. “In the last round of recalls, you may recall, there was a person who signed Adolf Hitler’s name to a petition. Fortunately, they gave a Berlin, Germany address and so we struck it on that basis rather than on the basis of it being Adolf Hitler.”

In order to recall Walker, petitioners must collect more than 540,200 signatures by January 17. At the beginning of the month, Walker opponents had collected more than 300,000 signatures.

“I think everyone believes that the groups are on track to collect the signatures,” University of Wisconsin political scientist Barry Burden told Wisconsin’s Radio Network at the time. “Both Republicans and Democrats are betting on it. The progress they’ve made to this point suggests there’s a lot of enthusiasm for signing. Being halfway there with still six weeks to go, it looks doable to me.”

According to WISN, the Republican Party and Walker’s campaign cannot see the signatures until after they are submitted, but they are encouraging supporters to report questionable names and data.

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