Wisconsin: Investigation of petition fraud against Democratic Senator in 2011

The Government Accountability Board is investigating recall petition signature fraud in the recall of Senator Dave Hansen. Hansen was one of three Democrats who faced and easily defeated recalls last summer.


In the allegations, two groups submitted more than 18,800 signatures. More than 3,300 signatures were tossed. Chad Fradette, one of the backers of the original effort, who then started his own attempt, claimed that the leader of the effort, David VanderLeest, was hording signatures and refusing to allow any of the group to look at them.VanderLeest ran against Hansen, after a Republican Assembly member failed to get the signatures, and got blown out. VanderLeest is currently running for a state Assembly seat.

Fradette formed a second group with David Steffen, who lost to Hansen in 2004.

Fradette says the GAB is investigating signature collectors that came from out of state, fraudulent signatures, forgeries, and try to ascertain who paid for them.