MADISON - A group of election conspiracy theorists has submitted enough signatures to trigger a recall election against the Legislature's top Republican but questions remain about how the effort will move forward under a state Supreme Court ruling barring such contests under maps redrawn since the recall effort began.
Wisconsin Election Commission staff found the group seeking to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos turned in enough signatures from Vos' old Assembly district to trigger a recall election, according to a memo from a commission attorney to commissioners.
But staff also recommend leaving it up to the bipartisan panel to decide at their Thursday meeting whether Vos could be recalled from the district he was elected to represent in 2022, a district the state Supreme Court has declared to be part of an unconstitutional electoral map. If commissioners decide a recall election must be held in Vos' new district, the group is short enough signatures.
In a statement, Vos said the committee broke state by collecting 347 signatures outside of the time period allowed and therefore, the commissioners should not deem those names as valid.
"We also raised serious fraud allegations that were not refuted by the Recall Vos committee or addressed in the WEC staff report. We are confident they have not met the threshold for recall and will present our argument to the commission on Thursday," Vos said.
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The recall committee said in May it had submitted more than 9,000 signatures, exceeding the required number by about 2,100. Vos challenged the petitions, arguing he identified thousands of invalid signatures through his own review.
Ultimately, commission staff found the group had submitted 6,866 valid signatures — 16 more than required, according to a memo released by the commission on Tuesday.
Members of the bipartisan state Elections Commissionrejected the group’s first recall effortagainst Vos in April after commission staff determined the group didn’t gather enough signatures in the correct legislative districts and found petition circulators illegally forged signatures.
The recall efforts are led by a group of Racine County-area supporters of former President Trump who want to oust Vos over his criticism of Trump and his refusal to take up legislative efforts to impeach WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman has recently emerged as a spokesman for the effort after being hired by Vos in 2021 to probe the 2020 presidential election. He is now helping lead the recall effort with petitioner Matthew Snorek, a resident of Racine County. In April, Gableman said the first recall was“sabotaged”and “infiltrated by outsiders from New York and Florida,” efforts he said were tied to Vos without evidence.
Organizers of the first recall effort submitted more than 10,000 signatures to the WEC in March, butelection commission staffsaid not enough of them were from residents in the 63rd district, where Vos was elected when the recall started.
Vos was elected to the old 63rd Assembly District, but after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down old maps as unconstitutional, organizers would have needed 7,195 signatures to meet recall law in the new 33rd Assembly District. Organizers of the effort fell about 945 signatures short.
Recall organizers have criticized Vos for obstructing efforts to impeach Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe after he in Januaryblocked a resolution to launch impeachment proceedingsagainst her.
In September, Assembly Republicansput forward 15 articles of impeachmentagainst Wolfe tying her to debunked election lies and falsely claiming she was directly responsible for decisions made by the commission. All 15contained false or misleading claimsabout how election administration works in Wisconsin. The commission faced harsh criticism from Republicans over Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election in Wisconsin.
The group of recall organizers in November spent tens of thousands ontelevision and radio adsthat falsely claimed Wolfe implemented policies decided by the agency’s panel of commissioners and threatened to unseat Vos if he refused to move forward with efforts to impeach Wolfe.
Vos in Marchendorsed Trump’s presidency, but conservative activists behind the recall effort also took issue with his outspoken criticism of the candidate.
In 2021, Vos refused to take steps to overturn Trump’s election loss in Wisconsin and later pledged to ensure he wouldn’t secure the GOP nomination. The loss of about 20,000 votes in the state in part prompted the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters, who badgered Vos to decertify the election result and sowed divisiveness within Wisconsin’s Republican base. Trump backed a write-in campaign for Vos’ 2022 primary challenger Adam Steen, who Voseasily defeatedwith 73% of the vote.
The state elections commission asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to weigh in on whether a recall election should take place in the district Vos was originally elected to or under the new district boundary lines taking effect before the November election, but the Court in Aprildeclined to offer clarity.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
