Recall elections for nine Wisconsin state senators were held during the summer of 2011; one was held on July 19, and six on August 9, with two more held on August 16. Voters attempted to put 16 state senators up for recall, eight Democrats and eight Republicans, because of the budget bill proposed by Governor Scott Walker and circumstances surrounding it. Republicans targeted Democrats for leaving the state for three weeks to prevent the bill from receiving a vote, while Democrats targeted Republicans for voting to significantly limit public employee collective bargaining. Scholars could cite only three times in American history when more than one state legislator has been recalled at roughly the same time over the same issue.
The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) certified six recall petitions filed against Republican senators and three recall petitions filed against Democratic senators. Democrats needed a net gain of three seats to take control of the Senate. Republicans needed a net gain of one seat to gain a quorum-proof supermajority on fiscal spending. Of the nine recall elections, Democrats held on to all three of their challenged seats; Republicans lost only two of their six challenged seats thus they retained their majority in and control of the State Senate, albeit by a slightly narrower margin.
More than $35 million was spent on the recall races. The spending on the nine races compares to $19.3 million spent in 2010's 115 legislative races, and approaches the $37.4 million spent in the race for governor.
Successful petitions
Results
Primary recall elections took place in July. The first general recall election also took place in that month, with Democratic Senator Dave Hansen retaining his seat. Six general elections took place on August 9 resulting in four Republican senators retaining their seats and two being defeated with Republicans keeping a majority in the Wisconsin Senate. Two Democratic incumbents (Wirch, Holperin) prevailed in their own recall races on August 16, which left Republicans with a net one-vote majority in the Wisconsin Senate.
Primaries
General elections
County Results
'Placeholder' candidates
In all six Democratic-led recall attempts against Republican Senators, the Republican Party organized and supported the nominations of 'placeholder' candidates in the Democratic primaries (called "Fake Democrats" by some). According to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, the purpose of the placeholder candidates was to force Democratic primaries and delay the general election, allowing their incumbent Senators to have additional time to campaign. Robocalls were sent out to 20,000 conservative voters for candidate Isaac Weix in an effort to get Republicans to cross over and vote in the primary. All the placeholder candidates were defeated. The cost to the state was estimated to be more than $475,000.
State Republicans blamed the cost on Democrats, stating that it was "all State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate's doing", as they had promoted the idea of recalls, and said that Democrats should pay the additional cost. Although recall efforts against Democratic senators began about a week before Republican senators, the Wisconsin Democratic Party officially backed the recall efforts as early as March 2. Official state Republican Party support related to the recall elections occurred when the placeholder candidates were put in place in June.
Senate District 30
In Senate district 30, Republican candidate John Nygren, a State Representative from House District 89 in Marinette, was removed from the ballot in the July 19 recall election for Democratic Senator Dave Hansen of Green Bay. The state Government Accountability Board voted unanimously on June 27 that Nygren had received only 398 of the required 400 valid signatures on his nominating papers. This only left Recall Organizer David VanderLeest as the only certified candidate against Senator Hansen. The board had initially found that Nygren had submitted 424 qualifying voter signatures, but 39 signatures were challenged by Democrats as not being from Hansen's district, and 26 of the challenged signatures were determined to be invalid. Nygren filed a lawsuit in Dane County Court seeking to overturn the board's decision, but was unsuccessful.
Elector qualification changes
These recall elections were Wisconsin's first under provisions of a newly enacted law-making two significant changes to the eligibility requirements for voting—photo ID and a longer residency requirement (from 10 to 28 days)—as well as the minor change of requiring electors to sign-in on the poll book.