MADISON (WKOW) -- After collecting signatures for two months, Democrats finally face their deadline Tuesday to turn in petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker.
But that does not mean we are much closer to a recall election, even if they have collected enough signatures
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is heading to the Government Accountability Board office at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, but both the Democrats and Republicans are already looking ahead to what comes next.
"We are not going to be surprised by anything the Democrats bring in on Tuesday," said Brian Schimming, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party.
"I think the number we hand in [Tuesday] is going to make a statement about people's distrust in where Gov. Walker's taking the state," said Mike Tate, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party
They say that number is more than 700,000 signatures. That is well over the 540,208 necessary to trigger a recall election against Walker.
But that does not mean this is the end. In fact...
"We are just at the beginning of quite a long process," said Charles Franklin, Marquette Law professor.
The GAB estimated it would take at least two months to process the petitions. That was before a court order put them in charge of checking for invalid or duplicate signatures.
"There is going to be a whole lot of boxes of paper. Really, there is going to be quite a delay," Franklin said.
When the GAB is done with them, they will move on to Walker's campaign
"We have people stepping in the door literally every day signing up to check petition signatures," Schimming said.
They could bring challenges to court. Then, there is the possibility of a primary election for the Democratic candidate.
"I think a competitive primary is a great thing not just for democracy but for our party," Tate said.
"If we think about three months maybe for the GAB to process signatures, maybe another month for candidates to challenge that, then six weeks to a primary and four more weeks to a general election, we could easily be into June or possibly July.
That is just the recall effort against Walker.
The Democratic party will also hand in signatures on Tuesday to recall Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and Republican Senators Van Wangaard, Terry Moulton and Pam Galloway.
An independent group will file petitions to recall Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.
