Republicans who control the state Legislature took a step Monday toward firing Wisconsin’s top election official, setting the stage for a court battle over who leads this battleground state’s system of elections just months before voters begin casting ballots in the 2024 presidential contest.
Members of the Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection voted 3-1 by paper ballot against the reappointment of Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe − a move Democrats refused to acknowledge as legal after the Democratic Attorney General and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys concluded earlier this month the Senate was taking up an appointment that was never made.
The legal opinions were based on the Wisconsin Elections Commission failing to produce four votes to reappoint Wolfe at the end of her term in June, with Democratic members citing a recent Supreme Court ruling that said appointed officers like Wolfe may stay in their positions beyond the expiration of their term unless they are removed….
Republican leaders of the state Senate have forced a vote on Wolfe’s future anyway as they continue to feel pressure to act over discontent within the base of the GOP over the 2020 election and false claims leveled by former President Donald Trump, who is the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary race.
The full state Senate could vote on firing Wolfe as early as Thursday.