The GOP-controlled state Senate sought late Wednesday night to pull Meagan Wolfe’s position as the state’s top elections official before the body, even though the Elections Commission deadlocked on whether to renominate her as agency administrator.
The body approved a resolution via voice vote that declares Wolfe had been nominated for the post, which would subject her to Senate review.
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The move came even though the commission on Tuesday only got three of the six members of the body to support sending Wolfe’s nomination to the Senate. Dem members who abstained argued four votes were needed to move the nomination, and the deadlock means Wolfe remains in the job indefinitely.
Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard, D-Madison, called the resolution — introduced without notice after the chamber approved the budget — “a violation of the integrity of this body.”
But LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said on the floor the motion was about following normal order. He slammed the Elections Commission for failing to send Wolfe’s renomination to the full Senate for consideration.
He added the commission has failed to follow normal procedures for a vote on the agency administrator, raising questions about whether state residents can trust the agency to administer statewide elections.
“Despite WEC’s antics, the state Senate is committed to follow the law and restore faith in our elections,” LeMahieu said.
Wolfe has been the subject of criticism among those who have falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from former President Trump, as well as Republicans who have taken issue with how the agency administered election laws during that campaign.
LeMahieu has predicted Wolfe would be rejected by the Senate if renominated for the post.
Shortly after the Senate passed the budget tonight, LeMahieu introduced a privileged resolution. It stated a “unanimous number of commissioners voting” backed Wolfe’s nomination, but the commission hasn’t submitted the appointment to the Senate.
It declared the Senate considers Wolfe to have been nominated for a new four-year term that begins this weekend and that under the chamber’s rules, the body president shall refer her nomination to a committee for review.
Ann Jacobs, a Dem appointee to the Elections Commission and past chair of the body, said Republicans are misreading state law. Jacobs, an attorney, said state law requires two-thirds of the six-member body — or four votes — for the vast majority of commission actions, including the nomination of the administrator.
“It’s four votes, all day every day,” Jacobs told WisPolitics.
But LeMahieu told reporters after the vote he’s received legal advice that it requires a majority of commissioners voting to advance the administrator’s nomination. The 3-0 vote with three abstentions meets that requirement, he said.
Read the resolution.
