captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: in a closely- watched voting rights case, the supreme court today rejected redrawn texas electoral maps that favor minorities. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we'll assess the texas-sized ramifications of the ruling with law professor richard hasen and political reporter shira toeplitz. >> woodruff: then, gwen ill updates us on the tightening

g.o.p. presidential race, one day before the south carolina primary. >> may hinge on the decisions on the state's most conservative voters. >> suarez: plus we'll have analysis from mark shields and david brooks. >> woodruff: from our colleagues at wisconsin public television, we have an update on the effort to recall governor scott walker. >> all of this was set in motion a year ago when governor walker and the republicans passed a bill that removes most collective bargaining >> suarez: and margaret warner looks at the federal shutdown of one of the world's most popular online sites, the file-sharing web site megaupload.com. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: bnsf railway. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic

performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> suarez: the supreme court today tossed out the texas congressional map, creating chaos for the upcoming primary election and highlighting the difficulties of redrawing boundies in states with diverse populations. four million new residents means texas is adding four additional seats in congress, and democrats had high hopes of winning some of those seats as they attempt to reclaim the house. a three-judge panel in san antonio drew its own map, fearing the lines drawn by the texas legislature wouldn't win speedy approval from the

department of justice, as required under the voting rights act. today, the supreme court unanimously found the san antonio judges used the wrong standards to draw the temporary maps. so, now what? for a look at the legal and political implications of the decision, we're joined by richard hasen, professor of law and political science at the university of california irvine school of law; and shira toeplitz, a political reporter for "roll call," who has been closely following the texas case. >> professor hasen what had texas republicans asked the supreme court to do in the first place. how did the case get there and what were they supposed to be doing, redrawing making their own map? >> what happened is texas because of its history of discrimination is one of the states that needs federal aproving before they can make changing in voting laws including redistricting laws and trying to get them approved through federal court in

washington d.c. and while that's on going another court in texas is drawing temporary maps around it has to be done to know what maps to use with the redistricting. the court said the standard they used in drawing the maps is wrong and now sent back for redrawing under new standards to give more deference to the texas legislature's own maps. >> back to the same court in texas whose maps they just rejected? >> we'll, they sent it back because the three-judge court in texas believes they shouldn't did he ever to texas' plan passed by the legislature and had to start from scratch and draw lines and the supreme court in a unanimous pin it was a mistake and start with the texas drawn maps that the legislature drew and make whatever changes are necessary to comply with what looks like it may be a violation of the voting acts and going back to the texas court

they have to take a preview and see if the dc court is likely to find a voting rights violation or constitutional rights violation deferring from the maps. >> the democrats hope to make it a much more closely divided congress or what happens we take the speaker's chair. was this a setback for them. >> a huge setback. texas is going to pick up four new house seats because of population increase. democrats need 25 seats to win that house for a huge chunk of that and under the court-drawn interim map it was a democrat-friendly map the way they drew the district and where they added them including population has it tended to vote for democrats so by throwing the map out and then asking the court to base the new map the new interim map on the new map passed by the texas legislature is good for the republicans because as i'm sure you can imagine there's a lot of

republicans in texas a state that consistently votes republican and the republican majority with rick perry do a republican-friendly map and aggressive one of that when they passed it this summer. >> did they draw any seats in favor of minority aspirations which is when the voting act is for afterall. >> they took one and made it more friendly towards minorities. they'll argue the map passed last summer was retro gresive in minority voting rights and republicans will say they're add added one more minority seat by fudging a line in south texas. >> professor, is it usually done by now? after all we're in the third week of january. we don't seem to have a lot of time, do we? >> it is late and we've already had the texas primaries

postponed once. the question is will it be again because now the texas court's going to have to have hearings, draw new lines and that itself could be appealed to the supreme court. it's very late and may get later. >> was texas already looking to get out from under the preclearance requirement for their new maps sort of bridling under the requirements almost 50 years later. >> yes, this is a big change. in the last few years we've seen a number of states including the state of florida recently and shelby county, alabama a number of states subject to the voting act saying it's no longer constitutional we shut6ú3f3f3f3á

you jump through the hoops you have to want to be a member of the house of represents to go through this over and over again. right now cand dates filing to run for the house don't know where the districts or even why number to put on their application when they file for office. >> in today's ruling, professor, the supreme court asked for a new map by february 1. does that seem like a reasonable date? >> well, i agree with shira, it's going to be tough and i really believe that if the court goes too far one way or the

other it is likely to see another appeal go off to the supreme court. i don't know how much appetite the supreme court will have for a second emergency kind of hearing but this is far from over and i've already heard from a number of democrats and minority plaintiffs in texas who think they'll have a better shot before this new -- before the texas court under the new standards than they're given credit for. >> thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: saturday's primary in south carolina; shields and brooks; the governor recall campaign in wisconsin; and the federal clampdown on an online file sharing site. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan.

>> sreenivas: six u.s. marines were killed in a helicopter crash in southern afghanistan today. there was no immediate word on the cause. the taliban claimed it shot down the chopper, but u.s. officials said there was no indication that enemy fire was involved. france warned today its forces might leave afghanistan early after an afghan soldier shot and killed four french troops. it was the latest in a series of similar attacks. in paris, president nicholas sarkozy called off efforts to train afghan units until security improves. >> sreenivasan: 15 french soldiers were wounded in the attack. a quarter of a million homes and businesses were in the dark today in washington state after a major winter storm knocked out the power. the storm was also causing widespread flooding as heavy snow and ice began melting. rivers in oregon spilled out of their banks, as well, and more rain was in the forecast. the orange glow of fire kept fire crews on edge outside reno, nevada. thousands of people had to flee

after the fast-moving brush fire tore through the area yesterday. it reached the city outskirts overnight, destroying at least 26 homes. by today, firefighters had the blaze 50% contained. the fire was fueled by 80 mile- an-hour winds. the front steps of courthouses in a number of u.s. cities were occupied by protesters today. the rallies were aimed at a landmark u.s. supreme court decision that abolished most limits on corporate and labor spending in federal elections. in washington, about 150 people marched in front of the supreme court, protesting corporate involvement in government. they were joined by some occupy wall street activists. in economic news, microsoft and ibm reported better earnings than expected, while google missed its target. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 96 points to close at 12,720, but the nasdaq fell a point to close at 2,786. for the week, the dow gained more than 2%; the nasdaq rose nearly 3%. famed blues singer etta james

died today of leukemia at a los angeles-area hospital. she had a string of hits in the late 1950s and 1960s, including her signature classic, "at last". in 2009, she performed it on abc's "dancing with the stars." ♪ ♪ >> ♪ at last... ( cheers and applause ) ♪ my love has come along in my lonely days ♪ they're over and life is... >> sreenivasan: etta james was 73 years old. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy.

>> woodruff: the republican presidential campaign came down to the wire in south carolina today with polls pointing to a two-man race in tomorrow's primary. erstwhile frontrunner mitt romney started his day in gilbert, south carolina, acknowledging a late surge by newt gingrich. >> so i knew we'd have a long road ahead of us and, frankly, to be in a neck-and-neck race at this last moment is kind of exciting. >> woodruff: later, in orangeburg, gingrich was upbeat. >> we are going to take the first big step towards ensuring that a conservative is nominated for president of the united states. >> woodruff: but rick santorum, campaigning in lexington, painted first gingrich, then romney as unacceptable. >> you have one candidate that's a little too radioactive, little too hot. and then have another candidate who's just too darn cold, who doesn't have bold plans. >> woodruff: south carolina's voters were just hours away from

having their say. gwen ifill has been in the palmetto state, sampling opinion. >> ifill: these are the faces of the voters who, two years ago, changed the political calculus in south carolina. >> the candidates are responding to the tea party message, and are playing to us rather than the other way around. >> ifill: that tea party message-- conservative, god- fearing, and worried about government intrusion-- takes credit for electing six of their number to office in 2010, including a governor and five members of congress. this year, they have failed to come together behind a single candidate for president, so when the group held its first statewide convention this week, newt gingrich and rick santorum were eager to reach out to them. >> we need someone who is unabashedly conservative, believing in the foundation principles of our country. >> south carolina has the chance to change history on saturday. but to do that, we have to unify the tea party and we have to

unify conservatives in a very straight-forward way. >> ifill: tea party members say they want the country to return to the principles it was founded on. >> the foundation of our country was based on god and rights that god gave us, not the rights government gave us. >> someone who won't compromise. someone who will seek god's direction in the decisions they are making in washington, just like our founding fathers would have done. >> ifill: they're not all that crazy about the man who led in the polls in recent months, former massachusetts governor mitt romney, whom they think is too moderate. how is mitt romney doing with tea party voters? >> in south carolina, not too well. maybe elsewhere, they're more moderate. but where you have a true conservative movement, not very well. >> ifill: but they are concerned about the negative attacks on each other. >> i think they're killing each other off. i'm worried about that.

whoever is the survivor is going to have to overcome a lot of negatives. but they all have a lot of positives, too. we have a joke-- if we could just roll them all together, we'd have the perfect candidate. >> ifill: that's a common theme among south carolina republicans still trying to decide before tomorrow's voting begins. >> if you could take a little from each one of them and mold them into one person-- a little santorum, a little gingrich; romney's business acumen, gingrich's ability to address and debate, santorum's pure conservative principles, even ron paul with his fiscal conservatism, you would have a perfect candidate. >> ifill: that is the dilemma for the state's most prized voting bloc-- motivated voters who want to deny the president a second term. the numbers tell the tale. four years ago, two-thirds of republican voters identified themselves as conservative; 60%

of them said they were evangelical. and more often than not, the candidate who wins the g.o.p. primary here goes on to win the party's nomination. bob oldendick, a political science professor at the university of south carolina, says the candidates are splitting that valuable vote. >> you see the candidates that are trying to say, they all agree there should be one candidate. what they disagree on is they all think it should be them. ( applause ) >> ifill: at last night's debate in charleston, each made his pitch to uncommitted conservatives. gingrich used the very first question from moderator john king about an explosive new interview given by his ex-wife marianne to turn the tables. >> she says that you came to her in 1999, at a time when you were having an affair. she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> ifill: gingrich eventually denied the allegation, but not before turning the potential minefield into an opportunity-- and drawing a standing ovation-- by questioning the media. >> i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much

of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. >> ifill: paul emphasized his libertarian, small-government leanings. >> well, most of the things the federal government could do to get us back to work is get out of the way. ( applause ) i'd like to see the federal government have a sound currency. that creates a healthy economy. ( applause ) i would like to see massive reduction of regulations. i would like to see income tax reduced to near zero as possible. and that is what we have to do. >> ifill: romney said he is best positioned to defeat president obama. >> ours is the party of free enterprise, freedom, markets, consumer choice. theirs is the party of government knowledge, government... government domination, where barack obama believes that he knows better

for the american people what's best for them. he's wrong, we're right. that's why we're going to win. >> ifill: and santorum said he is the only true conservative left in the race. >> south carolina, you've been told in the past you've got to settle for a moderate because they can win, and you said... the last time we had a situation like this, in 1980, you said, "no, we're going to take the strong conviction conservative." and you voted for reagan before reagan was the reagan we knew. vote for the one who can do the job that america needs. vote for me. >> ifill: a daily drumbeat of new polls this week have shown gingrich steadily closing on romney, turning what had been a double-digit lead into a likely photo finish. one big switch, according to a nbc news/marist survey, was among tea party supporters, who backed romney, 35% to 27%, on monday, but flipped to gingrich, 34% to 27%, on tuesday after the week's first debate

so the fight is on to prove who is the most worthy. voters are thinking it through. the reverend jesse sellers pastors park baptist church in prosperity. >> as an evangelical, i support newt because of his integrity and because of his economic plan for jobs. as for him as a man, he's been in the valley, he's experienced broken-ness. he's about things that we christian baptists hold dear to our hearts, which is repentance, humble himself before god. >> ifill: jerry wheeles is a beaufort businessman >> gingrich has a lot of fan base. i think he generates a good bit of chemistry with people. but he's got a little bit of luggage. i do, too, of course. ( laughs ) but im not running for president. >> ifill: those shades of gray disappear on television in the political ads, paid for by both

the candidates and their deep- pocketed outside supporters, that have blanketed the airwaves here this week. >> one is a serial hypocrite who lobbied for freddie mac before the housing crisis. another, a counterfeit conservative who opposes right to work. finally, a flip-flopper who's been on all sides. >> i agree with governor romney on many things. but this presidential candidate romney? i don't even know the guy. then again, he doesn't even seem to know himself. >> oh, come on. >> ifill: and the candidates have used their campaign rallies and speeches across the state to draw crystal clear contrast with each other and with president obama. the president's approval rating stands at 44% here, and romney-- still seen as most able to win a general election-- is counting on that unhappiness. >> you have a president who is comfortable with trillion-dollar deficits. we've never seen these until he's come along. he's put together almost as much

public debt as all the previous presidents combined. >> are you going to compromise? are you going to vote for someone who can win? or are you going to vote for someone who is right for america? >> it must be a lot more exciting to be involved in a campaign that really believes in something. like our constitution. that's a pretty good belief. ( cheers and applause ) >> we've got to bring conservatives together in order to stop him. >> ifill: the university of south carolina's bob oldendick says romney's biggest stumble may have come when he admitted earlier this week that he paid a 15% tax rate in 2010, and said he did not earn much from public speaking. "not much" turned out to be more than $300,000 last year. >> that's one of those moments that, well, he really shouldn't have said that in south carolina.

for the average american, for the average worker in south carolina, that's ten years. not "that much"? >> ifill: so a race that even romney's competitors had begun to predict he would win is most decidedly not over. ann ubelis of the beaufort tea party came out yesterday to see gingrich. perfection is elusive in politics. so do you go for electable? >> actually, no. no compromise, no surrender. you go for your true principle. you vote on principle. and what shakes out in the end, you hold your nose and vote for the republican nominee. but no compromise, no surrender. >> ifill: next stop: florida. >> suarez: gwen joins us now from columbia, the capital of south carolina.

>> completely upset there are new polls that seems every day but the one interesting one we're watching today came from clemson university, st. paul one of the urbanized told me on monday was leading by ten percentage points. by today we now have newt gingrich leading by six percentage points. you can use size of the sample but there are half a dozen polls that show momentum going this way and today for the first time we're hearing mitt romney say things like well i didn't really expect to do well here in south carolina which i don't believe he would have set even as little as a week ago. so there's a big shift underway and it's been remarkable to watch. >> have the campaigns had to spend a lot of money in south carolina in tv.

you mentioned how often how ubiquitous the ads are. >> not as much as the republicans are spending in florida which are much more expensive. the ads are everywhere and we're what hearing for the center from republican integrity we asked them to look at the supesuperpa money they're not coordinating bore the candidates but raising them. mitt romney and newt gingrich raised the most with names like restore america and winning our future. in truth what's happening on the airways is incredible almost unrelenting negatively. paid for by a lot of the campaigns themselves like ron paul's ads are some of the toughest on the air here and a lot by the superpacks taking after each other in a way that could backfire in some way among some voters we heard the woman in the piece saying they're going t

going to blow each other up after that you think $3 million in ads in south carolina. that's a lot of money and that's how much separately mitt romney and newt gingrich are spending and that's what you're seeing that causes the volatility in the polling numbers. >> you reported on a 16-point swing between romney and gingrich on the air war. when you're out there face to face with the candidates and crowds do you get the sense it's a fluid race and people are are still in the process of making up or even changing their minds? >> well, it's very interesting. usually by the end of these campaigns the last week we begin to see a little bit of blase set in on the part of voters. could you just take this stuff off the television. will the robo calls stop coming to my house and sending me mail. we see hundreds still showing up at campaign rallies and the

driving rain to see people, to hear people and that doesn't even count steven colbert who drew 400 people at the college of charelston in an in a joking way but the seriousness is people are still curious. i've been talking to people and they're trying to decide. the pollsters at the palmetto state poll when they asked voters why they were changing their minds or shifting from one to another they couldn't really give a clear answer and so when we see last-minute issues like this infidelity questions including newt gingrich, when you see that arise you think is that shifting it? we're in south carolina where the governor survived a scandal involving allegations about having an affair which proved to be unproven and where mark sanford you remember, the former governor, also was ended up not being governor any more but

wasn't impeached which everyone thought when he was discovered to be cheating on his wife and they're taking cultural issues and factoring them and they want someone to speak to their anger about their life situations and especially among republicans. change people in charge in washington. >> gwen >> woodruff: and to the analysis of shields and brooks-- syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. >> mark, we just heard gwen refer to it in so many words a wild week. how does the race look to you right now? >> it looks exactly the way she reported. it began with romney in good shape for the week and in a struggle and i just think it's been a terrible week for romney. romney, if you think about governor romney, all through the

debates and there's been 17 of them now, he'd been the discipline, the well mot modula and never waivers in his delivery and in two separate debates as soon as the questions came about his personal income and sources of it, what he made, what he paid he -- the part of rick perry was being played by mitt romney starting stumbling and the same on thursday night, was not the same candidate who had gone to the head of the pack. >> how do you e explain it. >> he can't close the deal. true in south carolina where gingrich is having an incredib e surge and john hatsman. people are paying attention to ad and debates and not going romney and he's losing every time. if you're not going forward

you're going backwards and he doesn't extend his argument. he sits there playing it safe talking about barack obama and just not closing the deal and the specific case which mark talked about was the taxes and i spoke to some campaign professionals who said i can imagine where the meetings were like where the aides go romney and say we have to talk about taxes then candidates generally say something like i got it under control don't worry. they're uncomfortable and the aides are uncomfortable and can't turn it around. he's just not aggressive because he's not just letting it all hang out there. >> you're saying you don't think he's comfortable talking about how much money he's worth? >> yeah. we talked last week about the need -- i think the need for him to give a speech about his business career and say this is success in america and went down after we spoke last week to south carolina and asked dozens

of people about bayne and barely find anybody minded. they all thought that's business. that's the way it is. sometimes the deal works, sometimes it doesn't. you have to be efficient. that's not the issue. the issue is personality not social class. is he comfortable in himself. does he get people like me and does he have the momentum? the primary electoral wants brave heart and right now he's brave heart. >> it's not like gingrich doesn't have issues the second ex-wife and he spoke about his wanting an open marriage and he denied that. why sent that more of a detriment or is it? >> i'm not sure it isn't. i'm not sure it's not going to be a voting booth issue come saturday in south carolina. newt gingrich faced with that question that you mentioned from

john king last night in the opening ever the debate resorted to the most time-tested tactic and uniteses the people on the party and you attack the media, elite media and mainstream media and eastern media and that's what he did. he just shot the messenger and never really other than sort of a quick denial addressed it. i mean, character is important in the president and the closer you get -- i thought the debate winner was rick sa santorum. do you want to wake up in the morning and hold your breath of what your candidate has said that day as he said or do you want me that can make the issue a referendum on the incumbent, president obama rather than on the republican nominee. >> but there's no evidence it's working for santorum still at 11

and i saw him the day after and james dobson supported him and it's just not adding up to anything. it's significant the big social conservatives are not helping him and he's ran quite a good campaign. i think it's the star power and fire and brim stone gingrich brings that's all about him. >> and with the iowa victory coming late which santorum seems happy about but it hasn't mattered. david, how do you see the gingrich issue the charge that his former wife made? is that a problem for him or not? >> i think at the end of the day it is. the guy has like a 27% national approval rating. he's just unelectable. when you talk to people down there they disagree and maybe i'm just an elite pundit out of touch but i can read numbers and if the vast majority of the country doesn't like somebody and form a negative opinion about somebody it's unlikely

he'll be president. i still think at the end of the day that he probably will win in south carolina. i think it's hard to see gingrich running the table. >> one of the drawbacks to the romney candidacy has been electability only carries you so far. and electability carries the sustaining argument when you're winning. well, this week we saw his iowa victory sort of at least tarnished and his expected three in a row, triple crown of iowa, new hampshire and south carolina not to be reality. what romney doesn't give you is a reason. there's not a core to this campaign. remember when fritz mondale got whomped by gary hart. he went out and gave a speech on what he stood for and believed. it was classic new deal democratic liberalism but it's

this is why i'm running. i don't think it's ever been revealed by romney. i mean, if you listen to him i had one of his lieutenants complain when he starts quoting the stanzas of america the beautiful. that's one thing if it's october 31 and your 15 points ahead but it's tough when you're trying to win a competitive primary. >> i don't know why he continues to do that. >>the continues to talk about his business experience even if it's not the negative both have you said it won't be. >> i think it's -- i think private equity and it's income inequality someone who said i didn't make much speeches, $374,000 last year. i'm sorry that's somebody out of touch and not understanding what people are going through. just shows -- >> there's a consistent tinness

to his talk about money about whether he thought he was going to be laid off and got a pink slip, that's not real. the reason that's different than others is almost 90% a debate campaign. it's not about the ads or about the appearances. newt gingrich is up because he attacks john king and williams. two moments in two different debates and that's what did it. >> you think the audience is really eaten that up? >> i think i'd only add he began his comeback by attacking chris wallace and then maria batalomo and it's his modus o modus modu. it becomes a pep rally. a republican party or tea party, democrat same thing. when jim lehrer of recent and

fond memory, great colleague, he'd go out beforehand and say no yelling or if you do i'll put the camera on you and embarrass you. >> and they knew better than to disobey. >> nobody's better than gingrich at that. he's a great first day politically. he is. >> very good question about the fourth man still in the race, ron paul. in fact, how much of a factor is he in south carolina? >> not in south carolina. he just has to try to get through this and has opportunities with caucuses out west and i think he'll rebound and stay in it for the long term. >> south carolina is perhaps -- and i don't say this critically, the most delicose state and his brand is american foreign and defense policy falls on deaf

ears even when rick perry stood up and said south carolina's at war with washington. it showed a great sense of history. 150 years ago. there is a sense that south carolina really does prefer the military option and i think it's not receptive at all to the paulage message. >> president obama started running ads in the swing states. look at part of the ads the president's campaign is run. >> america's clean energy industry, 2.7 million jobs and expanding rapidly. our dependance on foreign oil is below 40% and strengthened america's energy economy. >> what does that tell you the obama campaign is thinking about. >> they're not doing a lot of fact checking because that includebus drivers and it's a bogus statistic. they're trying to get out there

and i guess he's going to run on clean energy. i think it's a little dubious to run on but wants to show some forward-looking job creation. i don't know why they're out there with this particular ad at this moment. i guess if the republican party is going to look backwards he can look forward and that's a good strategy. >> i didn't know our dependance was down. that was addressed to me. the ad which we didn't see the beginning is in response to criticism of the president by particular -- >> we're trying to save time for the two of you. >> unnamed coke brothers. to me it was surprising because it has a defensive quality to it and that's an interesting way to begin a campaign defending. >> and speaking of energy and it has to be brief, the president turned down the keystone oil

pipeline. it looks like a temporary decision. smart move, what? >> totally political move. he said we're turning it down, wink. we'll revisit it after the election. i think it gave the republicans the retorical and political advantage on jobs. >> yeah, he could -- if they really did it, 10 to 20,000 jobs because the oil will get shipped to china and a political cynicly decision. >> thank you both. >> suarez: on saturday night, visit our web site for coverage of the south carolina republican presidential primary. we'll have a map with live results, video of candidates speeches, and insight from newshour staffers. you can find it all at newshour.pbs.org. next, a different political story-- this about the continuing fallout in wisconsin

from the big battles over union rights. the governor now could be facing a recall election. zac schultz of wisconsin public television has the story. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: with a boisterous crowd on hand, the democratic party of wisconsin literally delivered on their promise to gather enough signatures to recall republican governor scott walker. volunteers representing every county in the state took turns carrying boxes of petition pages out of a u-haul van and into the offices of the government accountability board. only the first box went up to the third floor to be presented with the paperwork. the rest were stacked in an office under heavy security from madison and capitol police. democrats estimated the total number of signatures at 1.9 million. one million to recall governor walker, 845,000 to recall lt. governor rebecca kleefisch, and

more than 21,000 signatures for each of four republican state senators. 540,208 signatures are needed to trigger a recall election of governor walker. that's equal to 25% of the number of voters in the last elecon. million snatures wod represent 46% of the voters in the last election, which would make it the highest percentage of eligible voters to ever seek to recall a governor. all of this was set in motion a year ago, when governor walker and the republicans passed a bill that removed most collective bargaining rights from most public employees, setting off weeks of massive protests at the state capitol in madison. the executive director of the democratic party of wisconsin says this was a monumental achievement. >> we think this represents such an incredible figure and is absolutely beyond any challenge, legal or otherwise. >> reporter: a spokesman for the republican party of wisconsin was not as impressed. >> there was never any doubt in

our minds that the democrats would be able to rally their liberal base of support around this baseless and expensive recall effort. >> reporter: the recall is now in the hands of the non-partisan government accountability board, which is in charge of elections in wisconsin. the signatures were transferred to an undisclosed state building, where temporary workers, under the supervision of g.a.b. staff, are working 15 hours a day to scan the petition sheets into a database. no one else will be allowed in until all the sheets are scanned. in the meantime, the world can watch through a live web cam. >> we've done a lot of planning on security. we're confident with the help of the capitol police. >> reporter: kevin kennedy is the executive director of the g.a.b. after scanning in the petitions, staff will begin reviewing the signatures, with at least two people looking at every signature. the normal timeline would require them to certify the signatures in 31 days, with governor walker only getting ten days to challenge fraudulent or duplicate signatures. but the g.a.b. will ask a judge

to extend their timeline due to the overwhelming number of signatures to check. >> right now, i can't tell you how long the petition review process will take. >> reporter: complicating matters is a recent ruling in waukesha county court, in which a judge ordered the g.a.b. to inspect the petitions for duplicate signatures and obvious fakes, a task previously left to the challenger. that additional task will require optical character recognition software and could add two months to the process. kennedy says it's impossible to predict when an election could take place, although it's safe to say it won't happen before summer. >> we really don't have any sense. there are so many variables in the process. there could be a large number of challenges. the court's order two weeks ago adds significant time constraints for us to make reasonable efforts to identify duplicates. >> reporter: democrats believe walker is hoping for long delays. >> scott walker knows if the election were held today, he'd lose. so he's going to engage in all sort of delay tactics and try to push this election back as best

as he can, knowing that's his only hope right now is to delay the timing of this thing. >> reporter: republicans say due process is not stalling. >> the government accountability board has said it anticipates requesting more time, and we encourage the g.a.b. to take as much time as necessary to ensure that no one is disenfranchised in this process. >> reporter: meanwhile, the roles of democrats and republicans have reversed. last fall, the democrats trained an army of volunteers to gather signatures while republicans sat and waited. now, the republicans are training their own army of volunteers to verify those signatures are legitimate, while the democrats sit and wait. these citizens have volunteered to examine petition sheets for the republicans. >> i wanted to look at the verification process and see how it was operating. >> reporter: turnout was so high around the state, republicans had to hold classes on two additional nights. >> our volunteers will be doing a hand review of all petitions, in addition to whatever the government accountability board is able to do on its end.

>> reporter: eric urtes says, with a million signatures, he expects the recall to happen, but says being part of the verification process is his way to participate. >> it's just like going to vote- - if you're interested in the politics of it and feel strongly about it, you have to contribute in one way or another. >> reporter: we are still months away from an official recall election being set, but democratic candidates are already stepping forward, making a primary election likely. the one name many democrats would like to see on the ballot is former that of former u.s. senator russ feingold, but he has repeatedly said he wilnot run for office this year. >> woodruff: now, one of the world's most popular web sites is shut down by the u.s. government in the battle over online piracy. margaret warner has the story. >> warner: it's one of the

largest criminal copyright cases ever brought. the target is a web site based in hong kong that's been used to share large files, including movies, videos, television shows, e-books, games and music. it's called "mega upload," the heavily visited site is said to have 150 million registered users and 50 million visits a day. now, it stands charged with storing and distributing pirated material, and thus robbing copyright holders of more than half a billion dollars. yesterday, the justice department shut it down and released indictments against seven executives. four were arrested at the new zealand mansion of its founder, who goes by the name, "kim dotcom." within hours, the hacker collective called "anonymous" retaliated, shutting down the web sites of the justice department and major media groups, including universal music and the motion picture association of america. the government's crackdown came one day after this week's online

protests against anti-piracy bills in congress. for more on all of this, we turn to cecilia kang, who's covering it for the "washington post." >> welcome back to the program. it's sounds as it if the website had everything you can imagine, print, video or audio. how did it actually function for it's users? >> it did have all those bits of content. the way it functions is that users good to the website and anupload content from family videos or music they have on these files or in the case of the fbi criminal indictment, copyrighted material up loaded illlegally and from that site other users can access the files and how you distribute the content. >> when the copyrighted material gets there it's not by the legitimate copyright holders, it's already been essentially

stolen or pirated even before it's uploaded? >> that's what the f.b.i. curveball indictment alleges is much of the website's material was illlegally there and copyrighted material that wasn't given permission to be there by the copyright holders and beyond that the f.b.i.'s saying there was a conspiracy for the operators to get as much illlegal content on the website as possible. >> what's the company's defense. i know you spoke to at least one of the lawyers. >> i have. i spoke to the outside litigator for the case and the counsel sill for mega uploads said one, there wasn't due process. they were not informed there would be a criminal case brought against them and they didn't have a chance to defend themselves but they point to historical court cases that show that perhaps mega upload has a defense in that they weren't contacted properly by copyright

holders to take down content and if they were they would have and said they may be protected by other cases such as the case of youtube where and in sony's case where they defended themselves against betamax that other uses legitimate for the website are being done the website should not be liable when there is illlegal activity as well. >> tell us who the company is. i notice from the at least from the justice department indictment not one of the people arrested was even an american. >> it's a really interesting company. it's a very opaque company in that it's difficult to see how it runs. it's not like there's an orb chart on the website like a fortune 500 company would have. it's an international company based in hong kong and many of their executives are dispersed around the world and four indicted and arrested are based in new zealand, for example. it has a figure head of a chef

executive but his name is will beets and he's a big figure in the hip-hop world and r&b world married to alicia keys. >> and he was not actually arrested or indicted -- >> that's right. >> explain why some prominent celebrities have actually endorsed this company and have done promotio promotional video. >> it's an interesting twist. mega has had criticism at them for a while and universal music has been critical against them satisfying there's a lot of iglegal content and mega upload got big people, big names, big celebrities to create a music video including kanye west, will i am, a member of the black eyed

peas to support it in a webcasted video saying mega upload is a great site and use it. >> this timing comes the same week you've had a huge controversy about the anti-piracy legislation in congress. >> it's been a high-volume, highly emotional incident up washington and the timing is interesting and there's a lot of people bringing up questions as to why the justice department if they were investigating this for more than a couple years it appears, why are they bringing out their indictment right now when it ses twoills were under seige by the internet community. there's a lot of suspicion around the timing of this but these are two -- keep in mind,

these are two discreet issues. the federal indictment of a criminal case and the two bills be proposed on the hill i should say have been on hold. were put on hold because of the controversy around them but if anything it makes the debate more at the front and center of washington and brought on and made the debate about less what's in the beltway and the internet community. anybody who uses the internet, people who run websites, the music community and hollywood, it's become a bigger debate. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: the u.s. supreme court rejected texas redistricting maps that favor minorities in a major voting rights case. and mitt romney and newt gingrich appeared to be neck and neck going into saturday's republican presidential primary in south carolina. and to hari sreenivasan for what's on the newshour online.

hari. >> sreenivasan: on the rundown, judy filed a dispatch on a group that is trying to double the number of women elected to congress. on "art beat," jeffrey brown speaks with filmmaker kevin brownlow about his restoration of the 1927 masterpiece, "napoleon." and tonight on most pbs stations, "need to know" reports on the sharp rise in the number of black lawmakers in south carolina and how that doesn't necessarily mean more political power for blacks. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. ray. >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on monday, we'll look at the winners and losers in the south carolina presidential primary. i'm ray suarez. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you online, and again here monday evening. have a nice weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the

world. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at bh access.wgbh.org