While Democrats celebrate the million petitions turned in today supporting a recall of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, Badger state Republicans are hoping that the best offense is a good defense.
"Of course the Democrats got a million signatures," said Ben Sparks, spokesperson for the Wisconsin GOP. "They're allowing individuals to sign up 80 times and they're allowing Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny to go on the rolls."
Critics of the recall effort have long charged that many of the signatures gathered were invalid. However, the anti-Walker forces gathered significantly more petitions than expected (they only needed 540,000), and United Wisconsin, the group co-ordinating the effort, seemed confident that with so many extra signatures, the recall would be almost impossible to avert.
Sparks, however, wasn't so eager to give up. "We have volunteers throughout the state who are working to verify these signatures," he said, noting the GOP was holding training sessions every night this week to help people verify. "Our sole focus is to check all recall petitions," he said. With a million to check, they likely can't afford to have any others.
