Wisconsin elections administrator vows not to bend to political pressure

A judge will decide if Wisconsin’s elections administrator gets to keep her job after the Senate voted to remove Meagan Wolfe from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate on Thursday voted to fire Wolfe for how she handled the 2020 election and because she refused to speak with senators about her job earlier this month.

“The Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections, and Consumer Protections held a hearing on Ms. Wolfe’s appointment. She refused to show-up,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, D-Oostburg, said on the Senate floor. “Wisconsinites of all political affiliations deserve to have faith in how the state’s elections are facilitated. Three WEC commissioners and interim administrator Wolfe have shown blatant disregard for the appointment process and the laws of Wisconsin. They have cast unnecessary suspicion on the integrity of Wisconsin’s electoral process.”

Democrats in the Senate insisted that Wolfe cannot be fired because the Elections Commission did not formally nominate her for a second term.

“The Senate cannot simply manufacture a nomination that does not exist,” Sen Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, argued. “And the Senate cannot have a confirmation process on a nomination that does not exist.”

Spreitzer, Wolfe and Democrats in Wisconsin are pointing to last year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that allowed a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources board member to stay on the board because the Senate hadn’t confirmed his replacement.

Within minutes of the vote, Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit challenging the Senate’s vote to remove Wolfe.

“The story today is not what the senate has purported to do with its vote. It’s that the senate has blatantly disregarded state law in order to put its full stamp of approval on the ongoing baseless attacks on our democracy,” Kaul said. “We are going to court to minimize the confusion resulting from today’s stunt and to protect a pillar of our democracy – the fair administration of elections.”

Wolfe told reporters she plans to continue to show-up for work at the Elections Commission.

"It’s unfortunate that political pressures have forced a group of our lawmakers to embrace unfounded rumors about my leadership, my role on the commission and our system of elections,” Wolfe told reporters.