John Nichols: Recall FAQ: Everything you need to know about Tuesday's elections

[sybylla]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_887d19ac-c22b-11e0-b9e7-001cc4c002e0.html

The Wisconsin recall elections that will take place Tuesday provide one of the most remarkable accountability moments in modern American history. After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican allies used their control of the state's executive and legislative branches of government to attack labor rights, local democracy, public education and basic services, mass demonstrations erupted across the state — culminating in an early March protest outside the state Capitol that drew 150,000 people to one of the largest pro-labor demonstrations in American history.

Despite the protests, despite polls that showed broad opposition to the governor's agenda, his legislative allies continued to advance their wrecking-crew agenda.

So the movement that had developed dusted off an old accountability tool developed during the era of populist and progressive reform in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the recall. Wisconsin is one of 19 American states that allow citizens to collect signatures on petitions and force sitting officials to face a special election.

In Wisconsin, six of the Republican state senators who voted with Walker face recall elections Tuesday. While the labor and community forces that organized the recall drives had little trouble collecting the tens of thousands of signatures needed to force the election, they faced unprecedented obstacles in getting to this point.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_887d19ac-c22b-11e0-b9e7-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1UYpeDVxv

I know most of you are already familiar with the lay of the land. But there are a lot of new faces looking for info today, so I thought I'd share this.