On the morning of March 14th, Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess approved the Government Accountability Board’s plan to hold the upcoming recall elections on May 8, and if that becomes a primary election, June 5.

Attorneys for all six targeted officials, for the committees to recall them, and for the GAB agreed to the GAB’s plan to ask a judge to extend the recall petition review deadline until March 31, from the current deadline of March 19.

This deadline is the trigger for election dates. By state statute, the recall election must be held “on the Tuesday of the 6th week commencing after the date” the Board finds a recall petition to be sufficient and orders the election.

Extending the deadline to March 30th allows the GAB to set elections for May 8, and if that becomes a primary election, the general election date would be June 5. If the extension was not granted, the general election date would have been May 29, the day after Memorial Day.

This plan will also allow for all recall elections, senators, Governor, and Lt. Governor to be held on the same days.

The agreement was submitted to Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess on Tuesday, and he approved it Wednesday morning.