Republican-led Wisconsin Senate votes to fire nonpartisan official amid 2020 election misinformation
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to fire the battleground state’s nonpartisan top elections official ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Democrats say the vote was held improperly and that lawmakers don’t have the authority to oust Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe. The issue is expected to end in a legal battle.
The fight over who will lead the elections agency stems from persisting lies about the 2020 election and creates instability ahead of the 2024 presidential race for the state’s more than 1,800 local clerks who actually run elections. Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plan to rig the 2020 vote in Wisconsin, and GOP leaders cited concerns from those skeptics in justifying Thursday’s 22-11 vote along party lines.
“Wisconsinites have expressed concerns with the administration of elections both here in Wisconsin and nationally,” said Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu. “We need to rebuild faith in Wisconsin’s elections.” Election observers have voiced concerns that replacing Wolfe with a less experienced administrator or continuing to dispute her position could create greater instability in a high-stakes presidential race where election workers expect to face unrelenting pressure, harassment and threats.
“Wisconsin Republicans’ attempt to illegally fire Wisconsin’s elections administrator without cause today shows they are continuing to escalate efforts to sow distrust and disinformation about our elections, denigrate our clerks, poll workers, and election administrators, and undermine basic tenets of our democracy, including the peaceful transfer of power,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement. Evers called for the state Department of Justice to represent Wolfe and help keep her in office. Meanwhile, Republicans introduced a resolution calling on the elections commission to appoint an interim administrator to replace her.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republican-led-wisconsin-senate-votes-to-fire-nonpartisan-official-amid-persistent-2020-election-lies
= new reply since forum marked as read
No doubt it will go the WI s. court. maybe higher???
Wisconsin Senate votes to remove state’s top elections official, setting off legal dispute
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/politics/wisconsin-elections-dispute-meagan-wolfe/?dicbo=v2-uRjndBz&iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial
By Whitney Wild and Eric Bradner, CNN
Updated 5:31 PM EDT, Thu September 14, 2023
?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill/f_webp
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe is seen in November 2021.
Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentine/USA Today Network
CNN —
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to fire the state’s top elections administrator, Meagan Wolfe – a move that immediately triggered a legal battle over who will oversee voting in one of the nation’s most important presidential swing states as the 2024 election approaches.
The 22-11 vote to remove Wolfe follows years of criticism by supporters of Donald Trump, who have blamed Wisconsin’s voting policies during the coronavirus pandemic for the former president’s 21,000-vote loss in 2020.
Wolfe is likely to stay on as the administrator of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission despite Thursday’s vote, after Wolfe and many Democrats, including Attorney General Josh Kaul, said the actions of the Senate – where an April special election victory gave Republicans a supermajority – were not legitimate.
Wolfe told reporters after the vote that she will remain on the job and will not “bend to political pressure.”
“The Senate’s vote today to remove me is not a referendum on the job I do, but rather a reaction to not achieving the political outcome they desire,” she said.
But state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said the commission must appoint an interim administrator. .......................