High Court Rules Meagan Wolfe Can Remain State’s Top Elections Official
Unanimous Supreme Court ruling rejects Republican legislators' attempt to fire Wolfe.
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe Sept. 7, 2023. Andy Manis/Wisconsin Watch
The Wisconsin Supreme Court says the state’s top election official can keep her job despite Republican lawmakers’ efforts to remove her from office.
In a unanimous decision written by conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, the court rejected an argument from Republican state lawmakers that the Wisconsin Elections Commission must appoint a new administrator. That’s not possible, Ziegler wrote, because “no vacancy in the position exists.”
“The legislators’ separation-of-powers argument relies on the conclusion that WEC has a duty to appoint a new administrator when an administrator’s term expires,” Zeigler said. “Because this court rejects that WEC has a duty to appoint a new administrator absent a vacancy in the position, the legislators’ argument necessarily fails.”
The case before the Supreme Court was the latest in a protracted political battle over whether Wolfe should be allowed to continue as the Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator despite her appointment that ended July 1, 2023.
It’s been driven by conservative activists angry over how she oversaw the 2020 presidential election, when COVID-19 changed the way clerks handled voting and President Donald Trump cast doubts about his loss to former President Joe Biden.
Republican state senators moved to fire Wolfe in September 2023 after the elections commission’s three Democratic members abstained from a vote to reappoint her, while Republican members voted in favor of reappointment. The split preserved the status quo, leaving Wolfe in the job on her initial appointment, where she remains to this day.
Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul immediately filed a lawsuit after the Senate’s vote to fire Wolfe, which he called a Republican “stunt.”The next month, former Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, asked Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to begin impeachment proceedings against Wolfe. He claimed her refusal to vacate her seat violated state law and amount to “corrupt conduct in office.”
While LeMahieu initially claimed the Senate’s firing was legally binding, attorneys representing him and other Republicans later told a Dane County Judge the Senate’s vote was merely “symbolic” and agreed that Wolfe was “lawfully holding over” in her position. Still, they asked the court to order the elections commission to appoint a new administrator.
Friday’s order upheld a 2022 ruling from the court’s former conservative majority, which found Republican political appointee Fred Prehn could stay on Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board past his term because the Senate never held a vote to confirm a replacement appointed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. In that case, Republican lawmakers argued in favor of letting Prehn stay in his role.
Wisconsin Supreme Court rules Meagan Wolfe can remain state’s top elections official was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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