Wisconsin’s Governmental Accountability Board (GAB), which oversees elections in the state, is today poised to certify recalls against three Republican state senators, as the battle continues over Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union legislation.
The board today will approve recalls against state Sens. Robert Cowles, Alberta Darling and Sheila Harsdorf. Last week, the GAB approved recalls against Republicans Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke and Luther Olsen. But still pending are three recalls targeting Democrats Dave Hansen, Jim Holperin and Robert Wirch.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, the board is postponing its decisions on the recalls targeting three Democrats, which were originally scheduled for today, citing strain on the board’s bureaucratic resources posed by the sheer number of signatures and challenges that have been made. But Republicans are also protesting that decision:
“What the GAB has done is purely partisan and intended to discredit our recall,” says a statement from Dan Hunt, who led the effort to recall Sen. Bob Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie).
Shane Falk, an attorney for the board, said the board has been working overtime to review all the petitions, with half a dozen board employees working on them over the Memorial Day weekend. The board has also had to put in long hours because it just finished overseeing a recount in the April 5 race for state Supreme Court - the first statewide recount in more than two decades.
“We’ve attempted to work concurrently on all the petitions, but we simply don’t have enough staff,” Falk told the board.
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