BURLINGTON — The organizer behind an effort to recall Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes says the effort is gaining steam. But there are also allegations she may be making up how strong that effort actually is.
Petition organizer Misty R. Polewczynski toldthe Racine Journal Times and the Wisconsin State Journal that she is "confident" she will have enough valid petition signatures for the Wisconsin Elections Commission at the end of the month.
Polewczynski has until Oct. 27, 2020 to submit 668,327 valid petitions. As of last Thursday, she told the Journal Times she has 623,000 petitions. She then told the State Journal she had surpassed the threshold.
But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reportedlater Monday that Polewczynski said in a Facebook post that she was misleading media outlets. "I'm going to do an interview this afternoon and will probably make up some crap to tell them," Polewczynski said, according to the MJS.
Polewczynski reportedly further said the numbers she gave the newspapers were inaccurate. "I would not pay attention to that number given to them!" she wrote, MJS reports. "Sometimes any press is better than no press. But like we'd give that out?!"
It appears the Facebook post has since been deleted.
The Racine Journal Times has updatedtheir report in light of Polewczynski's posts to Facebook.
Polewczynski filed the required paperwork with the WEC last August to begin her petition drive, according to the Journal Times.
The newspaper reports that in her filing, Polewczynski argued that Evers and Barnes are "unfit for office" and cited their "gross negligence" over their response to the coronavirus pandemic and unrest in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
If Polewczynski meets the threshold for valid petitions, the question of recalling Wisconsin's top two Democrats will be placed on a statewide ballot.
The threshold to successfully recall both Evers and Barnes is 25 percent of the votes cast in the November 2018 gubernatorial election, according to the RJT.
