'We do not have enough signatures,' says organizer of Gov. Evers and Lt. Gov. Barnes recall

SPRING PRAIRIE — With a Tuesday deadline looming, Burlington area petition organizer Misty R. Polewczynski announced Monday on the “Recall Evers Petition” Facebook page that efforts to recall Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes have fallen short of the 668,327 valid signature threshold required by the Wisconsin Election Commission to force a recall election.

“It is with a heavy heart we announced that after proofing and what came in over the weekend we have fallen short,” Polewczynski posted. “We do not have enough signatures to turn in … We will be finalizing campaign finance statements and all of the donations we did not need will returned over the next week, we cannot and would not keep those. No signatures will be turned in, leaving the ability for a recall to be filed again. And keeping the information from becoming public record. All remaining petitions will still be collected and destroyed to keep them from falling into the wrong hands.”

The petition threshold represents 25% of the votes cast in the November 2018 gubernatorial election. The four-year terms of office for Evers and Barnes, both Democrats, end in January 2023.

Polewczynski did not disclose how many signatures were collected.

In an Oct. 19 Journal Times story, Polewczynski reported that as of Oct. 15 623,000 signatures has been collected that recall organizers were “confident we will reach our goal.” Soon after, she told another newspaper that they had received enough signatures.

Read more: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/we-do-not-have-enough-signatures-says-organizer-of-gov-evers-and-lt-gov-barnes/article_de47a15e-0a1e-51e6-be97-9a879b4605d6.html
(Racine Journal Times)