A few weeks ago, the Wisconsin
Government Accountability Board (GAB) said that it would not be
checking petitions for the recall of Gov. Scott Walker for duplicates
and false names. According to the GAB, all signatures, even if someone
signed "Adolph Hitler” or "Mickey Mouse,” would be given the presumption
of validity until the Walker campaign flagged and challenged them. One
individual bragged that he had signed the recall petitions 80 times; all
of which would count unless Walker found them, and then moved to
strike.

The Walker campaign immediately filed a lawsuit, charging that the
GAB had a responsibility to review the petitions and eliminate any
obviously fraudulent names. Yesterday, a Waukesha judge agreed with Walker, and ordered the GAB to take "reasonable” efforts to eliminate duplicate and fictitious names.

Incidentally, the lawsuit was filed in Waukesha County as the result of a little-noticed bill
Governor Walker signed in the wake of the state-capitol protests last
spring. After Walker’s bill to essentially eliminate public-sector
collective bargaining passed, Democrats challenged the law’s legality in
the heavily liberal Dane County district court, where it was briefly
overturned. (Eventually, the state supreme court reinstated the law.)

Legislative Republicans, arguing that not every lawsuit related to
state government should have to run through Dane County courts (where
the state capitol of Madison is located), passed a bill allowing
lawsuits relating to state government to be filed in the home county of
the complainant. In this case, the lawsuit was filed by state GOP
executive director Stephan Thompson, who lives in Waukesha County — a
much friendlier venue.