Senate elections committee votes against keeping elections chief Meagan Wolfe

MADISON - Republicans who control the state Legislature took a step Monday toward firing Wisconsin's top election official, setting the stage for a court battle over who leads this battleground state's system of elections just months before voters begin casting ballots in the 2024 presidential contest.

Members of the Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections and Consumer Protection voted 3-1 by paper ballot against the reappointment of Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe − a move Democrats refused to acknowledge as legal after the Democratic Attorney General and the Legislature's nonpartisan attorneys concluded earlier this month the Senate was taking up an appointment that was never made.

The legal opinions were based on the Wisconsin Elections Commission failing to produce four votes to reappoint Wolfe at the end of her term in June, with Democratic members citing a recent Supreme Court ruling that said appointed officers like Wolfe may stay in their positions beyond the expiration of their term unless they are removed.

Republican leaders of the state Senate have forced a vote on Wolfe's future anyway as they continue to feel pressure to act over discontent within the base of the GOP over the 2020 election and false claims leveled by former President Donald Trump, who is the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary race.

The full state Senate could vote on firing Wolfe as early as Thursday.

Wolfe is at the center of a partisan firestorm surrounding the state elections agency as Republican lawmakers continue to embrace Trump's false claims about Wisconsin's system of elections, blaming the nonpartisan state official for decisions made by the bipartisan panel of commissioners that gives Wolfe direction.

Some guidance commissioners issued to clerks to help voters navigate the coronavirus pandemic has been used by Trump to question his 2020 election loss despite a lack of evidence to support his allegations.

Wolfe oversees the commission's agency, which provides guidance to nearly 2,000 clerks in Wisconsin. That guidance is decided by six appointed commissioners, three from each major political party. Her job is to implement their decisions as rules governing how elections are administered.

Committee chairman Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, said last week he was moving forward with a vote on Wolfe in order to uphold his "constitutional duty." Knodl and the committee's two other Republican members ultimately voted against Wolfe's confirmation on Monday.

Sen. Dan Feyen, a Republican from Fond du Lac and the committee's vice chairman, voted against Wolfe's reappointment citing her absence from a recent public hearing held on the matter.

"She didn’t show up for her public hearing amongst a host of other issues that were brought up during the public hearing on her appointment," Feyen's chief of staff Tim Lakin said in an email about the senator's reasons for voting against Wolfe.

Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Cameron, also cited Wolfe's decision not to attend the hearing in his vote against her reappointment.

"She was invited to appear before the committee to discuss her position as administrator. Unfortunately, she chose not to do so. Therefore, I chose not to recommend her for confirmation," Quinn said.

Knodl and Wolfe declined to comment through spokesmen.

The committee's vote to recommend firing Wolfe drew an immediate rebuke from Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

"Republicans are hell-bent on doing everything they can to interfere with our elections, including trying to abuse their power by improperly firing the state’s elections commissioner, who they last approved with unanimous, bipartisan support. It’s wrong. And it has to stop," the Democratic governor said.

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

The commission mailed absentee ballot applications to all voters, advised local officials on how to make ballot drop boxes secure and set new policies for voting in nursing homes. State law requires clerks to send poll workers to nursing homes, but the commission told the clerks to send residents absentee ballots because nursing homes weren't allowing visitors during the pandemic. The decision also ensured there was enough time for ballots to be returned and counted.

Few Republicans criticized the commission's decisions when they made them but called out the agency after Joe Biden narrowly defeated Trump in the state. Recounts financed by Trump, state audits and court rulings have confirmed Biden's win.

Since then, scrutiny of the commission has ballooned.

Wolfe said in 2021 she had no plans to resign after Republicans who control the state Legislature called on her then to lose her job overseeing the state's elections agency.

Wolfe said at the time lawmakers calling for her resignation were misrepresenting to the public her job and how policies are made at the commission, which require a bipartisan vote of at least four of the six commissioners.

"I think in some ways that they think I'm an easy target. I'm not," Wolfe said at the time.

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, a Democrat from Beloit, voted in support of Wolfe on Monday, and said her nomination is not properly before the Senate's elections committee, which is made up of three Republicans and two Democrats.

"Senate Republicans are on a path that will waste taxpayer money and create unnecessary controversy around our elections while attacking qualified, hard-working election officials," Spreitzer said. "If, as I fear, my Republican colleagues do not join me (in supporting Wolfe), I will be submitting a minority report to make clear that the Senate’s decision to move this illegitimate process forward is not supported by the law and is not the path forward for elections in our state."

Spreitzer's chief of staff Doug Hyant said the report would cover the legal opinions concluding Wolfe's reappointment was not legally before the Senate.

"Since Senator Knodl chose to hold this executive session via paper ballot rather than holding an in-person executive session, committee members were denied the opportunity to discuss the legal memos indicating that this vote was not properly before the Senate and were not able to make any motion to that effect," Hyant said.

Democratic state Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Eau Claire, did not vote. In a statement, Smith said he abstained because the appointment was not legally before the state Senate.

“No appointment has been made; accordingly, no vote should be taken,' he said in a statement.

Democratic election commissioners and Republican lawmakers each deployed unexpected legal maneuvers earlier this summer in their fight over Wolfe's future, neither of which are certain to succeed in court, where the ordeal is all but certain to land.

First, Democratic commissioners abstained from voting on a motion to reappoint Wolfe to her job in an effort to protect her from Republican senators who had signaled they would fire her if the reappointment was forwarded to them. With just three of six commissioners not voting, the motion to reappoint Wolfe failed without a majority.

Democrats argued there was no need for a vote because of a recent state Supreme Court ruling that sided with Frederick Prehn, a former Natural Resources Board chairman who decided to stay in his position nearly two years after his term expired.

The ruling's majority opinion said that the expiration of a term does not create a vacancy, meaning that holdovers in any position appointed by the governor can remain until a confirmation hearing is held by the state Senate. With commissioners failing to forward an appointment to the Senate, Democrats argued, Wolfe could remain in her job indefinitely.

But a day later, Senate Republicans moved forward anyway. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu contended Tuesday's 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.

As a result, all Republican state senators voted to pass a resolution to take up Wolfe's reappointment. Wolfe ultimately did not appear at the public hearing held by the elections committee after Kaul said the recent Supreme Court ruling kept Wolfe in her job. The state Legislature's nonpartisan attorneys also recently concluded that to reappoint Wolfe, the commission needed to have put forward four votes to do so.

Even if the Senate ultimately votes to fire Wolfe, Wolfe will likely stay in her position anyway as the matter is resolved in court.

"This is going to wind up in a lawsuit which is unfortunate and unnecessary but I certainly think that's a likely path," Ann Jacobs, a Democratic member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said on Monday.

"It has no effect. It's a nullity. It's theater. It is not reality," Jacobs said about Monday's vote. "The Senate going through this process is sort of sad and disappointing to watch but it doesn't change anything about the work of the commission, who the administrator is, or what needs to be done to start preparing for our 2024 election season, which begins in about three months."

The Journal Sentinel surveyed the 33 members of the state Senate in June on whether they would support Wolfe's reappointment as Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator. Fourteen senators responded. Six Democratic members said they would support giving Wolfe a third term. Four Republicans also declined to comment.

Jessie Opoien of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this story.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Senate elections committee votes against keeping Meagan Wolfe