Wisconsin Senate votes to remove state's top elections official, setting off legal dispute
Wisconsin Senate votes to remove state's top elections official, setting off legal dispute
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to fire the state’s top elections administrator, Meagan Wolfe – a move that immediately triggered a legal battle over who will oversee voting in one of the nation’s most important presidential swing states as the 2024 election approaches.
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to fire the state’s top elections administrator, Meagan Wolfe – a move that immediately triggered a legal battle over who will oversee voting in one of the nation’s most important presidential swing states as the 2024 election approaches.
The 22-11 vote to remove Wolfe follows years of criticism by supporters of Donald Trump, who have blamed Wisconsin’s voting policies during the coronavirus pandemic for the former president’s 21,000-vote loss in 2020.
Wolfe is likely to stay on as the administrator of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission despite Thursday’s vote, after Wolfe and many Democrats, including Attorney General Josh Kaul, said the actions of the Senate – where an April special election victory gave Republicans a supermajority – were not legitimate.
Wisconsin Republicans keep showing themselves to be the state party in the country most willing to lie, cheat and steal to gain and hold power
37Man I wish more people would realize what this means their next steps are. I’m getting more scared of this country day by day.
13What the fuck Wisconsin?!?!
12This is the best summary I could come up with:
Shortly after the vote, Kaul said his office had filed a lawsuit in Dane County seeking an injunction that would make clear that Wolfe remains in place as elections administrator.
However, despite the court precedent, the chairman of the state Senate’s election committee, Republican Dan Knodl, moved to consider Wolfe’s renomination last month, setting in motion the GOP-led vote to remove her.
Evers slammed Thursday’s vote to remove Wolfe, saying state Republicans were “continuing to escalate efforts to sow distrust and disinformation about our elections.”
Liberals won a majority on the state Supreme Court earlier this year, but GOP legislative leaders have publicly floated the possibility of impeaching Justice Janet Protasiewicz – turning the 4-3 liberal majority into a 3-3 split – if she does not recuse herself from cases involving redistricting, after her campaign-trail criticism of the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps as “rigged” and “unfair.”
“What I’m doing is asking a panel of former members of the state Supreme Court to review and advise what the criteria are for impeachment and to be able to go to the next step of this process if we’re not able to determine an off path,” Vos told WISN-AM Wednesday morning.
The surprise moves were an attempt to put some distance between Vos and the potential backlash over his threats to impeach Protasiewicz if she refuses to recuse herself from two lawsuits challenging the state’s legislative maps.
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