Just as Attorney General Eric Holder speaks out against voter identification laws, a government board in Wisconsin yesterday signaled that it will accept the signatures of “Mickey Mouse” and even “Adolf Hitler” on petitions for an election to recall Gov. Scott Walker. Politico has the story:

Signatures of names like Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler are being considered valid on recall petitions of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as long as they are properly dated, a government board indicated Tuesday.

Suspicious signatures will be noted, but reviewers on the Government Accountability Board will be looking primarily to see if the signatures are joined by a Wisconsin address and were signed during the appropriate time period, according to WISN12.

“We will flag them, but we will not strike them without challenge,” said board elections specialist David Buerger, when asked if Mickey Mouse’s signature could count. He added that in previous petitions Hitler’s name was only struck because the address was in Germany, not due to the name itself.

What does Buerger mean when he says, “We will flag them, but we will not strike them without challenge”? I hope he means that the elections board will do the detail work to contact the residents of the addresses associated with the sketchy signatures to verify that someone from those residences did, in fact, sign a petition for Walker’s recall — but something tells me that hope is in vain. Now that the board has transparently stated its willingness to accept weird signatures, its members are covered. They can accept the suspicious signatures without verifying and how would anybody ever know? It’s not as though outside folks could look at the petition and say, “Hey, Mickey Mouse’s name is on here!” The board members would just say, “Yes, we flagged that.”

This news — even more than Holder’s infuriating antipathy toward well-meaning attempts to ensure free and fair elections — underscores the need to work diligently to eradicate voter fraud. In a democratic republic like ours, elections are of the utmost importance. If we as voters are unable to have faith that the results of any given election reflect the true will of the people, how will we as voters be able to accept the legislation passed by our elected officials as law? Voter fraud undermines the rule of law in a very real and obvious way.

Brace yourselves for Walker’s recall election, for it will happen: Mickey Mouse will make sure of it. The hope now is that this is just round three of resounding embarrassment for the unions that have already so expensively splurged on unsuccessful recall attempts of a judge and legislators.

Update: Here’s video from the MacIver Institute of the board staff explaining its signature screening process.

Also, over at Mediaite, folks are upset about this story, too … but for very different reasons than I am.