MONROE - More people in Green County signed a petition to put Gov. Scott Walker up for recall than voted for him or his opponent Tom Barrett in 2010, according to an estimate by local volunteers in the recall effort.
Coordinators Amy Sloan, Monroe, and Tim Sager, Belleville, say more than 9,000 signatures have been collected in Green County since the petition drive began Nov. 15. The petition drive wrapped up this weekend.
This represents about 43 percent of all registered voters in the county (20,725 as of July 2011) and eclipses votes cast for Walker (6,391) and Barrett (6,567), according to data from the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan panel that oversees Wisconsin elections.
Sloan and other representatives from across the state will present recall petitions to the GAB in Madison on Tuesday, Jan. 17, followed by a "Petition Turn-In Celebration" at the Monona Terrace organized in part by United Wisconsin, the political action committee started last year with the "singular mission" of recalling Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
Sager said a few people who signed the petition in Green County were from elsewhere in the state, but that some Green County residents who work in Dane County signed there. By his estimation, it evens out.
Official signature counts are not yet available.
"We're not breaking it down by county or releasing totals until Tuesday, but we can say we're confident that we're on our way to hitting our internal goal of 720,000 signatures total (statewide,) which would be beyond any legal challenge by the Republicans," said Graeme Zielinski, communications director with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which is also working on the recall effort.
The number of signatures needed to trigger a recall of Walker and Kleefisch is 540,208, or one-quarter of the votes cast for them in November 2010. Petitions are also being filed for the recall of four Republican senators. GAB requested in November an additional $652,699 to handle the recall petitions, although this estimate anticipated the recall of six senators, not four. A recall election could cost $9 million, according to estimates reported by GAB. Sloan was feeling "fabulous" about the Green County effort on Friday, Jan. 13, after the recall office in Monroe, at 1211 17th Ave., closed down.
"People just came out in droves in Monroe. We didn't have to work very hard to find them," she said.
The recall effort consumed her life, and she's had "some very short nights" juggling her volunteer duties with the housecleaning business and eBay selling she does out of her home.
"I wouldn't have it any other way. This ranks right after the birth of my child," Sloan said.
Kay Krebs, another volunteer in Monroe, said she was stunned by the intensity surrounding the campaign to recall Walker.
"I haven't seen anything like this since the Vietnam War," she said. "And I'm that old."
But Krebs added that she hadn't encountered much resistance from non-signers: usually they simply told her, "I don't care to sign."
"My experiences were all quite polite," she said.
Sager, who lives in Dane County but stepped forward early on to help out in Green County, also reported a mostly positive experience, besides getting shooed off a few lawns - "to which I responded gladly, and quickly walked off their property."
Sager is a self-avowed independent voter and said he was gratified by the common ground he found while he collected signatures for the Walker recall.
"I met several Republicans who came in to sign the petition who voted for him and were disgusted with him," he said. After getting into a discussion with one signer, he discovered they both had voted for the presidential candidates John B. Anderson and Ross Perot.
Now that little is left for recall volunteers to do, Sager said many have expressed interest in helping seniors in Green County get correct identification, to prepare them for a new state law that requires a photo ID to vote.
"There's a lot of concern that the new voter ID law is going to disenfranchise senior citizens," he said.
Coordinators Amy Sloan, Monroe, and Tim Sager, Belleville, say more than 9,000 signatures have been collected in Green County since the petition drive began Nov. 15. The petition drive wrapped up this weekend.
This represents about 43 percent of all registered voters in the county (20,725 as of July 2011) and eclipses votes cast for Walker (6,391) and Barrett (6,567), according to data from the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan panel that oversees Wisconsin elections.
Sloan and other representatives from across the state will present recall petitions to the GAB in Madison on Tuesday, Jan. 17, followed by a "Petition Turn-In Celebration" at the Monona Terrace organized in part by United Wisconsin, the political action committee started last year with the "singular mission" of recalling Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
Sager said a few people who signed the petition in Green County were from elsewhere in the state, but that some Green County residents who work in Dane County signed there. By his estimation, it evens out.
Official signature counts are not yet available.
"We're not breaking it down by county or releasing totals until Tuesday, but we can say we're confident that we're on our way to hitting our internal goal of 720,000 signatures total (statewide,) which would be beyond any legal challenge by the Republicans," said Graeme Zielinski, communications director with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which is also working on the recall effort.
The number of signatures needed to trigger a recall of Walker and Kleefisch is 540,208, or one-quarter of the votes cast for them in November 2010. Petitions are also being filed for the recall of four Republican senators. GAB requested in November an additional $652,699 to handle the recall petitions, although this estimate anticipated the recall of six senators, not four. A recall election could cost $9 million, according to estimates reported by GAB. Sloan was feeling "fabulous" about the Green County effort on Friday, Jan. 13, after the recall office in Monroe, at 1211 17th Ave., closed down.
"People just came out in droves in Monroe. We didn't have to work very hard to find them," she said.
The recall effort consumed her life, and she's had "some very short nights" juggling her volunteer duties with the housecleaning business and eBay selling she does out of her home.
"I wouldn't have it any other way. This ranks right after the birth of my child," Sloan said.
Kay Krebs, another volunteer in Monroe, said she was stunned by the intensity surrounding the campaign to recall Walker.
"I haven't seen anything like this since the Vietnam War," she said. "And I'm that old."
But Krebs added that she hadn't encountered much resistance from non-signers: usually they simply told her, "I don't care to sign."
"My experiences were all quite polite," she said.
Sager, who lives in Dane County but stepped forward early on to help out in Green County, also reported a mostly positive experience, besides getting shooed off a few lawns - "to which I responded gladly, and quickly walked off their property."
Sager is a self-avowed independent voter and said he was gratified by the common ground he found while he collected signatures for the Walker recall.
"I met several Republicans who came in to sign the petition who voted for him and were disgusted with him," he said. After getting into a discussion with one signer, he discovered they both had voted for the presidential candidates John B. Anderson and Ross Perot.
Now that little is left for recall volunteers to do, Sager said many have expressed interest in helping seniors in Green County get correct identification, to prepare them for a new state law that requires a photo ID to vote.
"There's a lot of concern that the new voter ID law is going to disenfranchise senior citizens," he said.