Recall petitioners gather signatures, no intention of turning them in



Recall Walker petitioners took to the streets Tuesday, as the official campaign to recall Governor Scott Walker kicked off, and people gathering signatures are in every community around the state. They have 60 days to collect 540,000 signatures to trigger a Walker recall election, and now, it seems some of the collectors on Tuesday apparently took the time to trick recall Walker supporters on Tuesday.

Denise Lockwood, with FOX6's media partners The Patch uncovered the alleged fraud. She was told by a Governor Walker supporter, that he and others collected signatures to recall the governor, but says they never intended on giving their petitions to the Government Accountability Board, therefore tricking anyone who had signed the petitions out of having their names counted. A GAB spokesperson says this is illegal activity, fraudulent under state law.

Lockwood agreed to conceal the man's identity in exchange for an interview, during which time she discovered that multiple people were doing this. Then on Wednesday, Lockwood got a phone call from the man, saying they will turn their recall petitions into the GAB after all.

"He said, 'you know, one of the things that happened is, I really did some soul-searching, and we thought this was a really good idea 24 hours ago,' and in giving it some thought after the fact, he decided he was going to turn in the papers," Lockwood said.

Wisconsin Democratic Party Spokesman Graeme Zielinski says the actions are unacceptable, and in a statement, the chairman of the Racine Republican Party also condemned the fake gathering of signatures. He says the actions of one or several people does not reflect the Racine Republicans or the Racine Tea Party.

"Now, all of a sudden, at the point of the law, they're going to do the redeeming thing. I think what they have tried to do here is take away people's voices," Zielinski said.