Saturday, December 3, 2011

Recall Wisconsin Governor Walker Drive Gets Closer To Collecting 540,000 Petition Signatures To Force An Election

Perry Buck, a volunteer for the Recall Walker drive was spotted collecting signatures along the 800 block of W. Historic Mitchell St. on Friday in Milwaukee.

Photo: HNG

Recall organizers have confirmed that recall volunteers in 72 counties had gathered at least 1,000 signatures per hour.

By H. Nelson Goodson
December 3, 2011

Milwaukee - On Friday, recall Republican Governor Scott Walker volunteers were out in full force throughout the predominately Hispanic Southside community and around 72 counties collecting signatures. Recall organizers expect to surpass the 540,000 mark within weeks or by December 25, allowing them to gather another 110,000 to 200,000 extra signatures by the January 17 dateline. Some volunteers are hoping to gather close to one million signatures.
The recall Walker drive gained momentum (steam) to a different level last weekend when the first news blog article broke on November 26, by Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) which reported that organizers were projecting that the recall drive had surpassed the halfway mark of 270,000 signatures collected. The report went viral on the Internet and in the social networks, which many, including the GOP and Republican supporters doubted that the Wisconsin recall drive had actually gathered that many signatures in such a short period. It also prompted, Graeme Jonathan Zielinski, Spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party to contact HNNUSA concerning the story. Zielinski did admit it was a close call.
On November 28, an e-mail from United Wisconsin (UW) for the first time officially reported that 300,000 recall Republican Governor Scott Walker petition signatures had been collected surpassing the halfway mark to force a recall election. "Over 300,000 signatures in 12 days-that is over 1,000 per hour," United Wisconsin reported. Signatures were collected throughout the 72 counties in the state.
Hours after UW reported that organizers and volunteers had collected 300,000 signatures, the Wisconsin Democratic Party also acknowledged the numbers.
The remarkable outpour of eligible voters in Wisconsin had broken the organizers own record of collecting signatures before the January 17 dateline, despite a suspected Republican operated website Occupy-Madison that falsely reported that all the 540,000 signatures needed for a recall had been collected as of last weekend. The Occupy-Madison Facebook site has been shut down and the state's Government Accountability Board (GAB) is investigating, if its administrator violated any laws for falsely reporting that all signatures had been collected.
Initially, organizers were hoping to get at least 9,000 signatures per day, but the overwhelming citizen drive to recall Governor Walker raised the signature collection by threefold or more, UW statistics show.

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