Who will oversee the 2024 presidential election in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin remains clouded with uncertainty just weeks before the state’s nonpartisan top elections official reaches the end of her term.
Republicans who control the state Legislature could finally have a chance to oust the elections head they’ve sparred with over conspiracy theories and install their own appointee. But a recent state Supreme Court ruling appears to offer her an avenue to get around Republicans and stay in office.
And that’s if Meagan Wolfe, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and one of the most respected election leaders in the nation, even wants to keep the job when her term ends on July 1. All across the country, election officials have left the profession after an unrelenting 2020 election cycle that brought unprecedented challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic but also an onslaught of harassment and death threats triggered by false claims about voting and elections….
If Wolfe wants to avoid the possibility of Senate Republicans rejecting her confirmation, she could decide to simply stay in office without asking for reappointment.
A conservative majority on the state Supreme Court ruled last year that lawmakers can’t replace an appointed official until their position is vacant and that the end of a term is not a vacancy. The sweeping 4-3 decision allowed Republicans to maintain conservative control of policy boards by delaying votes for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ nominations.
That path would raise unexplored legal questions, but the ruling appears to imply that Wolfe could only be removed by impeachment or a vote by a majority of the elections commissioners. Senate Republicans in April gained the two-thirds supermajority they need to convict an office holder at an impeachment trial.