Tweet Attacks | Total Recall: Wisconsin Recall Rascality Rundown - Week One

In light of the increasing number of alleged incidents of petitions being torn and potential voter fraud by fake petitioners the Government Accountability Board has issued an official statement reminding people that those actions are considered a Class I Felony, "punishable by up to 3 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine."

November 18

State Treasurer Kurt Schuller likes to tweet. For example, during the first day of the recall he released upon the Internet more than two dozen tweets about his opposition to the recall effort, encouraging people to counter recall events, and expressing his support for the Governor. It isn't surprising he can spend so much time tweeting considering he campaigned on abolishing his office . However, one of the few times he's publicly opposed the Governor is when the proposed budget included slashing funding for the treasury by nearly 35 percent.

Today he made it into the recall news when he received a "false" rating on PolitiFact : "Schuller said on Twitter that it's a 'violation of election law' to print out and sign your own recall petition. He said he was responding to a tweet he felt was incomplete. But it's not a violation of election law. The same person can be both the signer and the circulator."

November 17

United Wisconsin announced that during the first 48 hours of the recall effort 50,000 of the 540,000 signatures needed to force a recall of Governor Scott Walker had been collected. Politico estimates that a total of 9,000 signatures a day will need to be collected by the January 17 deadline.

A man in a red pickup truck with the license plate number 213364F allegedly tore up petitions at a recall "drive-through' on the 800 block of Midvale Avenue in Madison.
WISC Channel 3 has the story .

Monologues of Dissent blogger Heather DuBois Bourenane allegedly received a call at 4 a.m. threatening that she had "attracted the attention of some very bad people."

November 16

An anonymous individual told Caledonia Patch that he'd be turning in signatures that he'd originally planned on destroying: "In order to derail the recall effort, the unnamed source initially said he planned to shred them and then he said he was going to hold on to them; but now the source said he plans to turn them into the Government Accountability Board because he doesn't think it's the right thing to do to keep them."

Wisconsin blog Politiscoop was the first to report on efforts being discussed on Facebook by conservatives who wanted to commit voter fraud by collecting and destroying signatures.

Mother Jones followed up by highlighting more Facebook posts making similar claims.

A posting saying that a petition drive would be held at a cemetery to copy names off of headstones was was made on a Democratic Party of Wisconsin calendar. The calendar was open to the public for posting recall events. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted that the post was created by "William Toirtap" with the last name being an anagram for "Patriot." Conservative think tank MacIver Institute first noted the event on Twitter shortly after it was posted, but followed up with their original tweet by attempting to alert DPW spokesperson Graeme Zielinski that it could be a hack or a prank. Zielinski responded with attacks on the organization via Twitter instead of taking a moment to clarify that it was an open calendar and anyone could post on it.

The issue was kicked up to Andrew Breitbart's national website BigGovernment where MacIver Institute President Brett Healy is a featured blogger. BigGovernment failed to mention that the MacIver Institute was originally skeptical of the posting.

November 15

An anti-recall rock was thrown through the window of Madison's Atwood Neighborhood cafe The Victory on the same day the recall of Walker was launched. The result of the attack was increased business over the rest of the week.

A man allegedly approached a recall table near Edgewood in Madison and tore up a petition destroying one page of signatures.

The Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert College Survey was released showing that 58 percent of Wisconsinites favor recalling the Governor. The poll showed that the gains came from the Walker's conservative base starting to defect. That number is higher than the support seen in the first days of the Ohio effort to collect signatures to get a repeal of SB5 (similar to Walker's legislation, but included police and firefighters) on the November ballot.

The UW College Republicans held a Recall the Recall event at the Edgewater featuring conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna and State Rep. Robin Vos. During his speech Vos was mic checked by participants of Occupy Madison.

Controversy begins to unfold regarding two political ads. One involved Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch for allegedly using her position and title to drum up opposition of the recall. The other involved a Waukesha School Board member who may have violated board policy to appear in a Walker campaign commercial.