The vote creates a dispute over who is in charge of overseeing elections in a state that is expected to play a critical role in next year’s presidential campaign.
MADISON, Wis. — Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to fire the swing state’s top nonpartisan elections official, whose allies responded by saying the lawmakers didn’t have the power to oust her. The Democratic governor’s administration plans to continue to pay her salary and make sure she maintains access to her office if she wants to continue in the job.
The Republicans’ own lawyers, as well as the state’s Democratic attorney general, told the senators before the vote that they didn’t have the authority to remove Meagan Wolfe, the director of the state’s bipartisan elections commission. Wolfe has won praise from voting administrators across the country as well as local officials in Wisconsin.
who gave liberals a majority on the state’s top court when she was sworn in last month. The court in the coming year is expected to determine the legality of the state’s abortion policies and whether to keep in place election maps that have given Republicans large majorities in the legislature.Four years ago, the GOP-dominated state Senate unanimously confirmed Wolfe, who was appointed by an elections commission consisting of three Republicans and three Democrats.
GOP lawmakers largely stayed out of her way as she and the elections commission navigated how to conduct the 2020 election amid the coronavirus pandemic. After Donald Trump narrowly lost the state, Republican lawmakers raised complaints about the use of ballot drop boxes, absentee voting in nursing homes and other election policies.
Republican lawmakers found they had few options for getting rid of Wolfe — ironically because of a lawsuit they won last year that says state officials often can remain in their positions until the state Senate confirms a replacement.Despite the vote, Wolfe faces few immediate impediments from doing her job because she has the support of Gov. Tony Evers , whose administration can make sure she continues to get paid and maintains access to her office.
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