Nov. 17, 2011 2:41 p.m. |(58) Comments

Madison — A posting on the state Democratic Party’s website saying supporters would copy names from headstones onto recall petitions was a prank, a party official said.

As it geared up to try to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the party this month created a feature on its site that allows anyone to create an event on its calendar.

One that appeared around 10 a.m. Wednesday announced a “cemetery petition drive” at which “we will be taking names from headstones and making recall petitions with the names we find.”

The host of the event was listed as William Toirtap — that’s “patriot” backwards.

Shortly after the event was listed, links and screen shots of it showed up on conservative websites, said Ryan Alexander, the state Democratic Party’s digital strategy director. Party officials removed the event from the site within an hour of it being posted, Alexander said.

Alexander said the calendar was similar to one Barack Obama’s campaign was using. The Wisconsin effort has been an overwhelming success, with over 500 legitimate events posted over the weekend, he said. Many of those were kick-off parties for the recall effort that began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

“It’s clearly ridiculous,” Alexander said of the cemetery event. “Clearly, someone from the other side wanted to create a little bit of mischief.”

Now that the recall drive is under way, expect a wave of problems to be reported from both sides. Consider:

— The state Republican Party has set up a “recall integrity center” where people can report what they consider suspicious activity. On Thursday, the party announced it had found a Department of Corrections employee using her state email account to announce a recall rally.

— The Republican Party also blasted recall backers for covering the name of a veterans park with a recall sign at a park in Deforest.

— Caledonia Patch reports it spoke with a recall opponent who gathered 150 signatures to recall Walker but had no plans to turn them in. Patch did not name the individual but later said he had decided to turn the signatures in after it was reported it is a crime to deface or destroy a recall petition.