Senator wants notarization requirement for recall petitions

Democrats say enthusiasm remains high in the effort to collect 540,000 valid signatures to force a recall election against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Republicans say they've been alerted to multiple instances of misconduct and fraud, and one Republican senator says he will reintroduce a bill requiring recall petitions to be notarized.

State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) says requiring notarization is an extra step in reducing fraud and misconduct in the signature-gathering process. Republicans are also downplaying the recall efforts. "There have been a lot of numbers thrown around by Democratic activists who are pushing for this recall. We view these numbers as dubious because there have been multiple instances of recall fraud," Ben Sparks, Communications Director with the Republican Party of Wisconsin said.

Republicans have set up a website to combat this fraud - a place where people can submit videos, recordings, photos and incident reports related to petition circulation and signature-gathering, and these claims will be investigated by party members and retired law enforcement officers. That site is RecallIntegrityCenter.com.

Despite the allegations of fraud, those who oppose Walker are still out in force, gathering signatures wherever they can. Democrats say they'd like to see 700,000 valid signatures collected by January 17th - well over the 540,000 needed to force an election. Jim Ward was out gathering signatures in Greenfield on Sunday, and he says turnout was good. "Personally, I'd like to see us get a million signatures. I don't care what the people in Wisconsin think. I'm going to do this anyway," Ward said.