Key Senate chair Knodl says he's undecided on whether to hold vote on elections chief Meagan Wolfe

MADISON - The chair of the Senate committee on elections said he hasn't decided whether to hold a committee vote to determine the future of Wisconsin Elections Commission leader Meagan Wolfe's job.

"I haven't made any determination whether either to hold an (executive) session, or when it might be," Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel following the hearing.

The confirmation hearing came after Attorney General Josh Kaul and the nonpartisan Legislative Council issued memos saying Wolfe's confirmation is not properly before the committee. Senate Republicans decided to take up the question of reappointing Wolfe despite the lack of a vote by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission to reappoint her.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not respond to questions Tuesday about the memo and when the full Senate would take up her confirmation, which the chamber could do without the vote of the committee.

Local clerks who support Wolfe, conservative activists who falsely believe former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election and former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman testified at the hearing Tuesday — but not Wolfe herself. Wolfe announced last week that she would not attend, citing Kaul's legal opinion.

Democratic Sen. Mark Spreitzer of Beloit attempted to stop the committee from taking up Wolfe's confirmation, citing a Monday memo from the Wisconsin Legislative Council that stated an appointment or reappointment requires four votes of elections commissioners under state law — a threshold Wolfe has not reached because of procedural maneuvers made by the commission's Democratic members in an effort to keep her in the role.

"This committee cannot take up a nomination that has not been made," Spreitzer said.

But Republican members of the committee voted to move forward. Knodl said after the hearing that while lawmakers take legislative attorneys' opinions into account, "it's up to us. It's we are the decision makers."

"We will go forward with this public hearing. I will not abdicate my authority, or the Senate's authority in this process," Knodl said as the committee began hearing testimony on Wolfe's confirmation.

While Knodl is undecided on whether and when the committee will vote on Wolfe's confirmation, he said the committee would make decisions "promptly" on a handful of bipartisan election bills that were also on the agenda.

Republican state senators passed a resolution in June to launch confirmation hearings for Wolfe, even though she has not been nominated for a new term.

State law requires two-thirds of the six-member commission to nominate an administrator for a new term. But Senate Majority Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, has argued the commission's vote of three Republican members voting in favor of reappointing Wolfe and three Democratic members abstaining from voting at all qualified as a two-thirds vote.

LeMahieu did not respond to questions Tuesday about the attorneys' memo and when the full Senate would take up her confirmation.

Spreitzer predicted Wolfe's appointment would end up in court in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, resulting in confusion for clerks.

Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson said clerks need one source for guidance on administering elections and said Wolfe is respected nationwide as an election official.

"Considering what happened after the 2020 elections, and since, we are in a world of crazy for next year," Tollefson said.

Conservative activists, Republican lawmakers return to false fraud claims in 2020 election

The hearing quickly turned from the legality of the process and toward false claims of voter fraud in an election held nearly three years ago.

Lawmakers began Tuesday's hearing with testimony from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau about a review of the 2020 election, completed nearly two years ago at the request of Republicans.

Republicans did not ask questions of state auditors, who made several recommendations for the commission, including adopting formal rules on the use of absentee ballot drop boxes.

Spreitzer noted Wolfe sent a letter to the committee Monday in which she said commissioners have voted to implement most of the recommendations contained in the audit bureau review and noting that she does not have a vote as administrator.

The audit was one of two reviews of the 2020 election ordered by Republican lawmakers. The other was led by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, taxpayer-funded review did not find evidence the election was incorrectly called. Gableman has been sued over records related to the review, which he testified he deleted if he deemed them irrelevant. His review, originally set at a cost to taxpayers of $676,000, ballooned to a price tag of more than $2 million.

If he were in Wolfe's position, Gableman said, "wild horses couldn't keep me from coming here and telling you about all of the good things that I've been doing to promote and protect the accuracy and transparency of elections in Wisconsin."

Gableman claimed "a majority of people in Wisconsin have doubts about the honesty of elections in this state." In a Marquette Law School poll conducted after the release of the nonpartisan audit, half of respondents said they did not know enough about the report, including 54% of Republicans. Under a third of Republicans said it raised doubts about the election.

Conservative activists who have sought to uncover election fraud themselves, including former Menomonee Falls Village President Jefferson Davis, Peter Bernegger and Harry Wait, assembled at the hearing to oppose Wolfe. Bernegger, a convicted felon whom Wisconsin Capitol Police are investigating for possible stalking behavior toward Wolfe, on Tuesday called for her arrest.

The audience, largely consisting of those who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen, laughed and clapped in support of Gableman's testimony and jeered Ann Jacobs, a Democratic appointee to the commission, when she said 2020 was an "outstanding, accurate, well-run election."

Election fraud is exceedingly rare in Wisconsin, and President Joe Biden's victory in the state was confirmed by multiple recounts and reviews.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Senate chair Knodl undecided on calling vote on elections chief Wolfe