Wisconsin Republicans 'vote to fire' state’s top elections official: report

Republicans in the Wisconsin State Senate on Thursday voted to oust Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, The Guardian's Alice Herman reports.

"Legal experts and the Wisconsin attorney general have disputed the move by Republican senators to remove Wolfe, a respected and accomplished non-partisan leader. Her removal would affect the administration of elections in 2024 and illustrates the increasingly wide reach of election deniers and rightwing conspiracy theorists in Wisconsin politics," Herman writes. "Before she became a lightning rod for conspiracy theories and criticism surrounding the 2020 election, Wolfe enjoyed wide support from Republicans in the state legislature. Appointed to head the Wisconsin elections commission in 2018, she was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the state senate in 2019."

Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that Wolfe is "likely to stay in her job as inevitable litigation swallows the issue for months. That's because Thursday's proceeding isn'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."

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Beck continues, "Wolfe oversees a commission that has been under fire for three years because of false claims put forward by former President Donald 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."

Herman points out that "Wolfe, who provides expertise and recommendations to the commission, serves at their direction – and not the other way around."

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg blasted the GOP's move.

"Meagan is being blamed for the decisions of her commission," Woodall-Vogg said, per The Guardian. "It's really unfortunate that she's being used as the scapegoat when she was not the person responsible for making any decisions that they're punishing her for."

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Herman's scoop is available at this link. Beck's is here.