Judge temporarily blocks GOP lawmakers from removing Wisconsin elections chief Meagan Wolfe

MADISON – A Dane County judge issued an order Friday temporarily blocking Republican lawmakers from removing or replacing the state's top election official as the legal dispute over her appointment continues.

Attorneys for legislative Republican leaders in a court filing last week admitted their effort so far to remove Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe was "symbolic," that Wolfe is legally in her current position, and that lawmakers have no power to replace her, despite GOP leaders claiming the opposite in public statements.

"An injunction is in the public’s interest because maintaining the status quo will avoid confusion and disruption to Wisconsin’s decentralized system of election administration. Simply put, I agree with WEC that the public expects stability in its elections system and this injunction will provide stability pending the Court’s final decision," Dane County Circuit Judge Ann Peacock wrote in an order issued Friday afternoon.

The order stipulates that the elections commission is permitted to recognize Wolfe as "the lawful holder of the Administrator position, vested with the full authority of that office and entitled to the privileges thereof," that state Senate actions intended to remove or replace Wolfe "have no legal effect" and that "further official actions by Defendants to remove or attempt to remove Meagan Wolfe from the Administrator position, including appointing an interim Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, do not have legal effect," all subject to the court's final decision.

Wolfe oversees a commission that has been under fire for three years because of false claims put forward by former President Donald Trump to persuade supporters he actually won an election that he lost and because of policies commissioners approved during the 2020 presidential election to navigate hurdles presented by the coronavirus pandemic.

President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin — a result that has been confirmed by two recounts paid by Trump, state audits, a partisan review, a conservative study and multiple lawsuits.

In September, the state Senate in a party-line vote rejected the appointment of Wolfe. Minutes after the vote, Kaul filed a lawsuit asking a judge to block Republican legislative leaders from appointing a new administrator and to declare Wolfe administrator, arguing the Senate did not have the power to oust her. Meanwhile, Wolfe said she would not leave her job until a court told her to do so.

Separately, a week after the Senate vote to fire Wolfe five Republicans in the state Assembly proposed articles to remove Wolfe from office through impeachment, an effort that so far hasn't advanced in the Assembly.

More: PolitiFact: Impeachment articles against Meagan Wolfe riddled with false and misleading claims

Even though lawmakers voted Wolfe out, she stayed in her job because the vote to fire her wasn't being recognized by Wolfe or many Democrats as legitimate, because the Republican-controlled state Senate forced a vote on Wolfe's future even though the bipartisan elections commission charged with hiring her did not put forward a nomination of Wolfe to consider.

When Wolfe's term expired in June, the six members of the commission agreed Wolfe should stay in her job but failed to find consensus on how to respond to an effort by Senate Republicans to oust her.

Ultimately, the commission did not put forward the four votes required by law to reappoint Wolfe, with Democratic commissioners arguing a recent state Supreme Court ruling that allows such officials to stay in their positions beyond the expiration of their terms protects Wolfe's job.

Senate Republicans decided to move forward anyway. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, contended the 3-0 commission vote that resulted in a failed motion to reappoint Wolfe was actually enough votes to reappoint Wolfe, even though state law says such votes require a majority of commissioners, or four votes.

"They could have voted no. They didn’t vote no. That would have been a tie vote. But it was a unanimous vote," LeMahieu said after a floor session during which Republicans voted to move forward with Wolfe's nomination. "3-0 is a two-thirds vote."

But in an Oct. 16 filing, LeMahieu's attorneys claimed the opposite — admitting the commission's 3-0 vote on Wolfe "did not effectuate an appointment," that Wolfe is lawfully in her current position as a holdover, and that "the Senate has no power to act on an appointment where there is no pending appointment."

The legislative leaders also said in that filing that the Legislature's Joint Committee on Legislative Organization has "has "no power to appoint an interim administrator while Administrator Wolfe is holding over" — but Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, indicated he doesn't agree with that concession.

"The law is very clear in saying that you have to have four votes to appoint somebody. If the person is not appointed, there's a process in the law that says this is the exact way JCLO (will) appoint somebody," Vos told reporters last week.

The GOP leaders are asking the court to order the elections commission to appoint an administrator for a four-year term "irrespective of whether a vacancy exists" no later than Nov. 1.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge temporarily blocks GOP from removing elections chief Wolfe