A gubernatorial recall election could be held on June 5th under a motion approved Monday by Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board.
The board's plan would set May 8th as the primary date for the June 5th election. The dates would cover recall elections involving the governor, lieutenant governor and four Republican state Senators. Any office that has no primary contest would have its general election in May instead of June.
The dates are a week later than tentatively scheduled but a week earlier than the board had been considering. That generally pleased Democratic attorney Jeremy Levinson.
"We want these elections as soon as possible. If that's as soon as possible, we're pleased with it. We're pleased that caution was brought to bear in thinking about this extension," he said. "Today's a great day, folks. We finally start to move past the lawyers and get to the voters where they should have been to begin with."
Both dates are completely contingent upon a Dane County judge granting an extension to the board.
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Board members held off on certifying Senate recall elections even though they effectively approved the recall petitions. Board director Kevin Kennedy said consolidating elections would save money.
"You can save the taxpayers a lot of money," he said. "That kind of money strikes me as good cause and I would hope the judge would see it that way."
An attorney for Republicans had no immediate objections to the plans.
While the Board has not released any final signature count in the gubernatorial recall, Director Kennedy said that 930,000 total signatures were submitted. That's short of the 1 million signatures organizers said they turned in but far more than the 540,000 signatures needed to force a gubernatorial election.