Meagan Wolfe

Wolfe was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, and raised in Waupaca County.[1] In 2009, she founded a rental real estate company that refurbishes historic buildings in Madison, Wisconsin.[1] In 2011, Wolfe joined the staff of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board as the voter outreach coordinator.[2][1] She was responsible for keeping the public informed on the state's election processes and voter identification laws.[2] She stayed on when the board was reestablished as the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC).[2] She later became an elections IT project manager and IT director.[1] In 2017, Wolfe became deputy administrator of the commission.[2]

In February 2018, the commission, comprising three Republicans and three Democrats, voted for Wolfe to serve as the interim administrator, succeeding Michael Haas.[2] She was appointed interim administrator March 2, 2018, and was unanimously confirmed by the Wisconsin State Senate on May 15, 2019, for a term ending June 30, 2023.[3][4]

Following the 2020 United States presidential election in Wisconsin, she faced calls by Republican members of the Wisconsin Legislature to resign.[4][5] In response to the criticism, the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy Coalition, a bipartisan group expressed support for Wolfe.[6]

When her term came to an end in June 2023, Wolfe remained in office due to the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court precedent that found that the expiration of an appointed term did not alone warrant removal from office when no replacement had been confirmed. Republican officials then believed they could remove her through the Senate confirmation process, by renominating her and having the Senate reject her nomination. Republican members of the commission attempted to vote for her renomination, but the Democratic members of the commission abstained from the vote, preventing a majority vote for renomination.[7]

The Wisconsin Senate deemed she had been renominated and that they would move to consider the nomination. The state attorney general, Josh Kaul, then wrote to the Senate telling them that there was no appointment and any Senate vote on the matter would be invalid.[8] The Senate moved forward with their process and voted along party lines to disapprove of her reappointment. Following the advice of the attorney general, Wolfe remained in office and said of the Senate vote: "My position as administrator is, of course, subject to removal by the majority vote of the commission at any time. In the meantime, unless a final determination of a court says otherwise, I will continue to serve as the administrator of the (Wisconsin Elections Commission)."[9] Kaul ultimately launched a lawsuit to clarify the legality of Wolfe's status, holding to the precedent of the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in State ex rel. Kaul v. Prehn, where the court held that an official could remain in their post beyond the expiration of their term until a successor was properly nominated and confirmed.[10]

Subsequently, a number of Republican state representatives began circulating a resolution to attempt to remove her through the impeachment process.[9] In early October, however, two conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices spoke out against the use of impeachment for such partisan political purposes, and Republicans in the legislature then appeared to back away from some of their impeachment threats. Subsequently, in the attorney general's case on this matter, Republican filings indicated that they acknowledged that their vote to reject Wolfe was "symbolic" and that Wolfe was "lawfully holding over" in her role.[7]

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