Like Magic, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald finds 3,000 Questionable Signatures to stop his Recall.

UPDATE-2/8/12: jsonline: Lori Compas, the recall organizer, said in a statement she is confident the recall will proceed.

"Once again, Scott Fitzgerald is using precious taxpayer resources to thwart democracy," her statement said. "After wasting $500,000 of taxpayer dollars with fake candidates in last summer's recalls, he's now filing challenges based on rejected legal arguments to prolong this process. Based on my role in the signature-collection effort, I can say with confidence that this is a perfect example of why this district wants Fitzgerald recalled, and that his frivolous challenges are destined to fail."

Surprise, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald found just enough recall signatures to knock of the count to prevent an election. That's what he says. He also thinks some of those votes will be thrown out do signatures from outside the "new" legislative district, which by law, doesn't apply (and he knows it). But as you might recall, recall organizer Lori Compas was adamant about the legitimacy of her collected signatures, and found offense at Fitzgerald's suggestion that fraud had been taking place on her watch. This is how Ed Schultz covered that story, with subtitles:

We're talking 3,000 signatures. That's a lot to contest.

jsonline: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Tuesday he will challenge more than 3,000 recall signatures - enough to prevent a recall election against him if state officials agree. Recall organizers submitted about 20,600 petitions to recall Fitzgerald - far above the 16,742 required. "I'll have enough challenges to be below the threshold," said Fitzgerald, of Juneau.