By M.D. Kittle Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — A Wisconsin Reporter review found 200 pages of recall petitions missing from the Government Accountability Board database of 153,000-plus pages of signatures in the recall campaign against Gov. Scott Walker.

GAB spokesman Reid Magney confirmed the gaps in the database, which was expected to be uploaded Thursday afternoon.

“At this point, I do not know why (the pages) were omitted, but it was certainly inadvertent,” Magney said in an email to Wisconsin Reporter.

The missing pages represent a small fraction of the 153,335 pages — about .13-percent.

Still, for those concerned about transparency and accuracy, 200 pages represent scores of petitions and signatures that had been unaccounted for.

Wisconsin Reporter’s computer-assisted reporting analysis used universal resource locators, or URLs, to track irregularities or gaps in the data.

The program, electronically reviewing 50 pages at a time, lasted several hours.

It found 50 pages of petitions missing from four different segments in thousands of files.

Wisconsin Reporter’s review also found other irregularities in the database — duplicate files, apparent mistyped or misnamed files and files out of sequence. None of those files, however, was incomplete.

Many of the files were marked with new time stamps Thursday afternoon, the review found.

While the GAB’s online post included missing petitions, Walker campaign supporters reportedly received a complete database last week.

“We’ve been given all of our forms,” said Ben Sparks, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

He said there have been a few minor glitches with the incumbent's copy of the database, including a corrupted file with 10,000 petition sheets the campaign could not access, but the matter was quickly resolved.

“So far we’re pretty pleased with the GAB taking affirmative steps to make this as fair and transparent a process as possible,” Sparks said. “Given what’s at stake, we know this is not an easy task, but the GAB has been coming forward on their end of the deal …”

The board earlier this week announced it would release the reported 1 million signatures in the Walker recall drive, as well as the 845,000 petition signatures in the recall campaign against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.

GAB paused Monday in releasing the Walker petitions online after concerns from domestic abuse and stalking victims that the documents provided too much personal information, putting victims at risk.

“We have concluded that the balancing test of the Public Records Law favors disclosure of the entire recall petition without redaction of information on a recall petition, even when individual signers have expressed a concern arising from prior abuse or violence committed against them by a person who is now subject to a restraining order,” wrote Kevin Kennedy, GAB director and legal counsel.

The board already had posted online the petitions in recall campaigns targeting four GOP state senators, and the petitions in last summer’s Senate recall campaigns.

Earl Glynn of KansasWatchdog.org contributed to this report.