Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin has been working hard to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) for over a year, and despite the polls leaning strongly in Walker's favor, the family planning provider is fired up and optimistic about Tuesday's election.
"The enthusiasm on the ground is amazing," said Stephanie Wilson, a spokesperson for PPAWI. "This election is going to be to a lot closer than people are anticipating."
Wilson told The Huffington Post that it has canvassers going door to door all over the state to motivate people to vote. Based on their reports, polling locations are running out of ballots and voter registration forms in Milwaukee, voters are bringing to the polls friends and family members who have never voted before, and women's issues are playing heavily into people's decisions.
"People are talking about and motivated by the attacks on women's health," Wilson told HuffPost. "We are hearing that on the doors time and again."
Walker has been an extremely polarizing governor on women's issues since he took office. On the eve of Easter weekend in April, he quietly signed four bills into law that repealed Wisconsin's equal pay law, ended a ban on abstinence-only education, banned the insurance coverage of abortions under state health exchanges and restricted women's ability to get abortion care.
Walker also decided in late 2011 not to renew a state contract with Planned Parenthood to provide cancer and multiple sclerosis screenings to low-income women, leaving four counties without such services.
Women's rights groups have been campaigning against Walker all year, and a May 30 poll conducted by Marquette University showed a significant gender gap between Walker and his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D): While men favor Walker by a margin of 58 to 36 percent, women prefer Barrett 52 to 42 percent.
Barrett and his supporters have been hammering home the "war on women" issue, repeatedly reminding voters about Walker's decisions on equal pay laws and Planned Parenthood.
Walker, on the other hand, is keeping the focus of his campaign on jobs.
"You know what the biggest concern for employers is?" asked Walker at a campaign event on Tuesday. "The biggest thing that's holding people back from creating even more jobs? The recall!"
Below, more on the history of the Walker recall effort:
