By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — It’s hard to imagine Madison conservative radio talk show queen Vicki McKenna’s name on a petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker, but apparently her signature has made the list.

Not by her hand, McKenna told Wisconsin Reporter on Wednesday, but by an imposter fraudulently using her name in a recall campaign she despises.

And the alleged imposter, the talk show host said, brings to light what she sees as the broader integrity concerns in a politically charged process that has passions running high on both sides of the divide.

'What about Joe?'

“I was obviously mad, but I was thinking to myself, ‘That’s got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. Who’s not going to notice that?’" McKenna said when asked how she felt about the possibility of her name falsely used in the recall drive.

McKenna said a longtime listener and fan emailed her Wednesday morning. The subject line of the email, which McKenna sent to Wisconsin Reporter, reads “election fraud.”

“Just saw your name with accurate address signed to a recall petition. Will this fraud be caught?” according to the email.

While McKenna said she can’t verify the report, she said the emailer is a “fairly regular listener,” and she’s inclined to believe the listener wouldn’t make up the charge.

The talk show host said she reported the accusation to the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s Recall Integrity Center and is considering whether to notify the Government Accountability Board, or GAB, the state agency charged with overseeing campaign and election laws.

“It’s one of those things. I’m special, so they’re going to catch my name. But what about Joe Williams or the random Bob Smith whose name written down? He doesn’t have talk show,” McKenna said.

As she has throughout the recall campaign, McKenna criticized the GAB in what she said is the board’s admission that it will not sort out duplicate signatures. And despite GAB representatives’ insistence that the board takes election integrity seriously, McKenna questioned the GAB’s ardor in inspecting fraudulent names.

“If they’re so concerned about this happening, why in the hell isn’t the GAB system set up to catch” irregularities, she asked.

Checking for 'Hitler'

GAB spokesman Reid Magney said if the person who contacted McKenna “did in fact witness this, he or she should contact law enforcement to file a complaint.”

Magney said the accusation of fraud falls under the category of identity theft and is a criminal matter.

He said GAB does check for obvious phony names in verifying the basics on recall petitions — name, address, date and signature.

“If we’re talking about Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse or Adolph Hitler, etc., our staff will be flagging those,” he said. “Where do you draw the line there? Richard Nixon?"

Questions into the integrity of the petition drive began shortly after Nov. 15, when the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin, a liberal political action committee, launched recall campaigns against Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Recall drives also target four state Republican senators.

Reports surfaced that some apparent opponents of the recall campaigns threatened on Facebook to collect signatures on petitions and destroy them. GAB officials at the time responded that there is no law against signing a petition more than once, in large part to remedy fears of petition signers who believe their signatures could be tampered with.

Magney said the statement was blown out of proportion in the media.

“Then people say, ‘My gosh, you’re saying people can sign more than once,’” Magney said.
“In the beginning, there was no hard evidence of anyone out there circulating fraudulent petitions. So far as I know, there is no hard evidence that people out there are signing more than once. All of this is conjecture.

"Last week, we urged people to calm down, take a breath, act like adults and let the process play out.”

But in these days of deep partisan divide, remaining calm has proved easier said than done.

Democracy's cost

The recall petition vetting process is a shared responsibility, a direct democracy proposition. GAB does its review of names, and the campaign for the incumbent targeted for recall can conduct its examination, independently. Then there is the challenge process, involving incumbents and challengers, the “back and forth” as Magney calls it.

The problem, McKenna said, is that the incumbent’s campaign is stuck with the bill to ensure the integrity of the petitions.

That’s the law, Magney countered. Want change? Take it up with the Legislature.

“There are things the Legislature can do to change the process, whether through constitutional amendments or changes to statutes," he said. "On how the law is administered, we take those laws very seriously, and we follow them to the letter.”

'Bad actor or two'

Mike Basford, chairman of the Democratic Party of Dane County, said phony, fraudulent or duplicate names are not in the best interest of a campaign that hopes to collect hundreds of thousands more signatures than the required 540,208 required to force Walker to a recall election, to ensure “this is a legitimate drive for recall.”

A like number of petition signatures are required to force the recall of the lieutenant governor.

Dane County, particularly Madison, is expected to be signature rich in the petition drive.

With tens of thousands of people engaged in the recall campaign, Basford acknowledged there are bound to be a “a bad actor or two.”

“The possibility is there, certainly,” he told Wisconsin Reporter. “I would say that anyone acting in bad faith, anyone breaking any laws in perpetuating fraud in this on either side, I would hope that they would be prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law. The integrity of this process is too important to do this any other way than the right way.”

When Jan. 17 rolls around — the date the petitions must be delivered to the GAB — Basford said he expects a few stray phony signatures in the mix, but he said too many people are working too hard to create an atmosphere of doubt in the recall movement.

“I’m advising folks to stay calm and do your work. We have six more weeks of this. I think we will make it to the end without anything too serious happening,” the Democratic official said.

Basford said McKenna is "doing what Vicki McKenna does," in riling up the listeners to her show.

McKenna said the claim of the phony signature is no Republican stunt, and that there are many other concerns with the recall petition drive.

Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, did not return a phone call seeking comment, nor did other party officials who are designated as spokespeople for the recall effort return phone calls and email.