GAB says 'no' to petition review help

MADISON - The scrutiny of the recall petitions has some criticizing the Government Accountability Board for not doing enough to weed out invalid signatures. And an offer for a more thorough review is being rejected.

In the midst of reviewing the 1.9 million recall signatures, and reported findings of errors and fraud, the Government Accountability Board is coming under fire.

"We want to uphold the election integrity here in the state of Wisconsin, unfortunately we're not seeing the GAB do a lot to uphold the integrity of the process," said Ross Brown, a member of one of two conservative tea party groups taking part in "Verify the Recall."

"Verify the Recall" is an independent searchable database to verify the petition signatures, according to Brown.

Brown says group's tested system uses software to access data bases from social security to the postal service to cross reference whether each signature and address is from an eligible voter living in Wisconsin.

Thirteen-thousand volunteers are doing the work from home computers.

The group offered to turn over its findings to the GAB, but the board said, "no thanks."

"Some of the things they're verifying just go way beyond what the statutes require us to do," said Kevin Kennedy, Government Accountability Board director.

The GAB acknowledges its review is not in-depth. Workers are looking for errors on the petition form, eliminating fictitious names like Daffy Duck and it is making reasonable efforts to remove duplicate signatures.

"You would think, being the GAB, they'd want to be accountable to make sure if you do see irregularities that they're flagged and taken care of, but yes that's all they're legally required to do," said political observer Mark Graul.

Graul is keenly familiar with the political process. He has helped to run numerous Republican campaigns in the past and now heads up Arena Strategy Group, a marketing and lobbying firm out Green Bay and Madison.

Graul is not convinced the GAB is doing the best job it can.

"With the GAB, nothing surprises us observers of the process, so you never know what you're going to get," said Graul.

GAB officials say any challenges to the agency's findings will have to come from the incumbent campaigns that have had organized groups of volunteers poring over the signatures for errors.

It's a big task facing the GAB. So just how thorough can reviewers be? For the six incumbents facing recall, the GAB is reviewing an estimated 1.9 million signatures on some 300,000 petition sheets.

That's enough to fill 60 of these boxes. And with a court ordered extension the GAB has a total of 61 days to complete its review.

"What's the old adage? Trust, but verify," said Graul.

We've all seen the GAB web cam of the hired workers looking over the petitions. But just what are they looking for?

We sat down with Graul, who has experience reviewing petition sheets.

"It looks to me the same person wrote those two names, maybe first three names, so that's the kind of thing they're looking at," explained Graul. "That's something I'd flag right away and call these people to verify."

There are the obvious mistakes, like the circulator of the petition failed to sign the form, making the entire page invalid. But Graul says on other pages pay close attention to the date when the circulator signed.

"When you sign down here, you're certifying these signatures are valid and if you sign this in advance then you can't certify that they're valid," said Graul.

And officials with "Verify the Recall" say more information can only help the process, and are considering legal action to get the GAB to take notice.

While Kennedy says the board is following state law.

"It's like a court. You don't allow people to just walk in and say, I've got additional evidence. You want to have certain procedures in place for that, these are procedures that the legislature has approved," said Kennedy.

The GAB has until March 19 to complete its review of the petitions, but officials say it's likely they will have to ask for more time.

On the "Verify the Recall" website there is a place once all the names are downloaded, where people who didn't sign a petition can check to see if their name was fraudulently added. Organizers say it's another check the GAB is not doing.