Republicans in Wisconsin’s state Senate appear poised to fire the Election Commission’s administrator this week, according to a report from the Washington Examiner.
Members of the state Senate elections committee, in a party-line vote of 3-1, nixxed reappointing Meagan Wolfe, the nonpartisan head of the Elections Commission, the report noted.
Wolfe has been at the helm of the agency since 2018, but her leadership came under scrutiny from Republican legislators after the 2020 presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump and his GOP supporters claimed at the time that he had secured a victory in Wisconsin.
Earlier in June, the Wisconsin Elections Commission were deadlocked regarding Wolfe’s reappointment.
Democratic members referenced a 2022 state Supreme Court decision which permits officers to continue in their positions indefinitely, provided they don’t resign when their term ends.
Faced with Wolfe continuing in her role despite a vote to reappoint her, state Senate Republicans began the process of removing her from office.
The Monday recommendation to remove Wolfe reportedly succeeded because GOP members expressed their doubt her confirmation would receive Senate approval.
In late August, a Senate committee gathered public opinion about Wolfe’s appointment. The session highlighted the GOP’s disagreements with election officials concerning the 2020 election results.
“I believe it is fair to say that no election in Wisconsin history has been as scrutinized, reviewed, investigated and reinvestigated as much as the November 2020 general election,” Wolfe said in a June letter to lawmakers.
“The outcome of all those 2020 probes produced essentially the same results: the identification of a relatively small number of suggestions for procedural improvements, with no findings of wrongdoing or significant fraud.”
The Republican party had appointed Michael Gableman, a former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, to oversee an extensive year-long investigation into the 2020 election outcomes.
His enquiry reportedly did not uncover evidence of fraudulent election activity.
One of the senators who voted against Wolfe’s reappointment, Dan Feyen, was influenced by her absence at the committee’s public hearing in August regarding the matter:
“Elections are at the foundation of our democracy and it is important that every citizen can trust that their vote will matter. This hearing made it clear to me that under Ms. Wolfe’s leadership, too many Wisconsinites don’t have this trust,” said Feyen, according to WKOW 27.
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