Wis. Judge Rules For GOP On Walker Recall Procedures. There is now talk of hiring software vendor! [View all]

[cyberpj]

A judge in Wisconsin threw a curveball Thursday evening into the recall campaign targeting Republican Gov. Scott Walker, ruling that state election officials must make a greater effort to screen out fake or duplicate petition signatures — rather than abide by the pre-existing rules, which have placed more of the burden on the Walker campaign.

The state GOP’s lawsuit filed in mid-December against the state Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections in the state, claims that Walker’s 14th Amendment rights of Equal Protection are violated by putting a burden on his campaign to review and challenge petition signatures within a ten-day period. Instead, they say, the GAB must thoroughly search for and directly strike out duplicate signatures, and invalid names and addresses.

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Kennedy testified that his staff has looked into the option of creating a database and entering names by hand, a process that could take eight weeks. Hiring a vendor whose software could read information from scanned petitions could speed the effort but cost about $94,000, he said.

After the hearing, Kennedy said the agency would review the decision and figure out the best way to comply. He also said he plans to ask the Legislature for additional money, enough to cover about $650,000 in initial cost estimates plus anything further as a result of Thursday’s ruling.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/wis-judge-rules-for-gop-on-recall-procedures.php

Also, January 5, 2012 AP article here:
http://host.madison.com/news/state_and_regional/wis-judge-remove-fake-names-from-recall-petition/article_dc3b3198-0c24-5c01-bbb8-840c79a87fa9.html