Elections Officials Calculating Possible Recall Costs

10/15/11 – State elections officials are trying to determine how much it might cost to hold recall votes early next year. Democrats and advocacy groups teamed up this week to announce a petition drive to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker. And 17 state senators who were not eligible for recall this year will be eligible in 2012. This year, local governments were surprised – and some were financially-strained – to hold the Senate recall elections which popped up in the spring after the protests over Walker’s effort to limit public union bargaining. State officials said this year’s recalls cost an estimated two-point-one million dollars. In Dodge County alone it cost more than $17,000 to pay for the recall elections and the recount in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Next year’s costs won’t be known until the recall votes are all scheduled. Meanwhile, incumbents who are targeted for recalls can raise unlimited amounts of money for those contests, with no limits on individual donations. Senate Republican Alberta Darling of River Hills raised over a million dollars to keep her seat this year.