The provision governing recall elections is an article of the Wisconsin Constitution, not a statute - Article XIII, Section 12, to be exact. The process for changing a constitutional article is more complicated and time-consuming than changing a statute, and cannot be completed in less than two years.
An amendment to an article of the Constitution must first pass both the state assembly and the state senate. Then the amendment must be referred to the next legislature chosen in the next general election. The amendment must be published for three months before being voted upon by the new legislature. If the amendment passes both houses of the new legislature, it must be put to the voters of the state and approved by a majority of voters. If the amendment is approved by the majority of voters, it becomes part of the Wisconsin Constitution. The amendment provisions of the Constitution are in Article 12, Section 1.
It seems there are protections the GOP could have added to make recall more difficult. They could have banned pay-per-sig employment, prohibited individuals not residing in a district from collecting sigs, they could require that valid signatures include both printed and signed names for verification purposes.
ReplyDeleteBut to do so would have been to indite the GOP's own process for recalling officials.
Could the legislature pass a bill that made it considerably more difficult to attempt a recall? Such as requiring a petitioner to pay the state thousands of dollars per signature submitted or the like, and still be constitutional?
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