State Republican Lawmakers Planning to Appeal Ruling Regarding State Elections Commission Administrator

Thursday, February 29th, 2024 -- 9:01 AM

(Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Public Radio) Republican lawmakers are planning to appeal a ruling that blocked their efforts to oust Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe.

According to Rich Kremer with Wisconsin Public Radio, in a Monday court filing, an attorney for Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu and Senate President Chris Kapenga said GOP leaders will ask a state appeals court to decide whether state law requires the Wisconsin Elections Commission to “appoint a new administrator regardless of whether a vacancy exists.”

Despite recounts, audits and investigations, Wolfe has become a focus of Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump, who has repeated false claims of extensive voter fraud in Wisconsin’s 2020 election.

In response, Republican lawmakers have launched multiple failed attempts to remove Wolfe from office. Trump lost Wisconsin to President Joe Biden by around 21,000 votes.

When the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s six board members deadlocked on Wolfe’s reappointment in June, Senate Republicans followed up with a vote to fire her in September.

At the time, LeMahieu said voters have “lost confidence in our elections” under Wolfe’s watch and argued that because the commission’s three Republicans voted to reappoint Wolfe and the board’s three Democrats abstained “it was a unanimous vote” needed for the senate to act.

Immediately after the Senate vote, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court asking a judge to decide whether Wolfe was lawfully “holding over” despite her term expiring and whether the Senate had any power to fire her.

During that case, LeMahieu, R-Oostburg; Vos, R-Rochester; and Kapenga, R-Delafield, admitted they didn’t have that power and their September vote “was symbolic and meant to signal disapproval of Administrator Wolfe’s performance.”

Last month, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock sided with Wolfe, ruling that a 2022 Wisconsin Supreme Court involving appointees also applied to Wolfe’s situation.

In that case, the court’s previous conservative majority allowed former Natural Resources Board Chair Fred Prehn to continue serving more than a year after his term ended.

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