Wisconsin Republican Lawmakers Vote to Fire Second Top Election Official

Thursday, October 19th, 2023 -- 12:00 PM

(Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) Wisconsin Republican lawmakers on Tuesday voted to fire a second top election official, the latest move by the GOP-controlled Legislature to overhaul the state's election system that has been under fire since former President Donald Trump launched a baseless campaign to sow distrust in his reelection loss in 2020.

According to Molly Beck with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, twenty-one Republican senators voted to reject Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' appointee to the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, removing him from his position on the panel that provides guidance to clerks throughout the state on how to run elections.

Former Milwaukee County Clerk Joseph Czarnezki was rejected after he joined Democratic commissioners in abstaining from a vote to reappoint Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe in an effort to keep Wolfe in her job amid an effort by Senate Republicans to remove her over the 2020 election.

Senate Republicans blasted Czarnezki for the move, arguing the Democratic commissioners broke state law by avoiding taking a vote to appoint a commission administrator.

The vote to reject Czarnezki comes a month after the same body voted to fire Wolfe, a vote legislative leaders acknowledged Monday had no legal basis, and about a year before the next presidential election.

Czarnezki was one of eight appointees fired by Republican senators on Tuesday. Ten Democratic members and one Republican, Sen. Rob Cowles of Green Bay, supported Czarnezki's appointment. Democratic Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee did not vote.

Within an hour, Evers appointed a new member to the commission: former Eau Claire Clerk Carrie Riepl.

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