Two votes in the Wisconsin state Capitol Thursday demonstrate Republicans’ controversial efforts to shape election rules in the battleground state going into the 2024 election cycle.
The first vote saw GOP lawmakers move ahead with a complicated procedural attempt to oust the state’s highest election official. The second seeks a complete overhaul of how Wisconsin’s gerrymandered legislative maps are crafted in the future, and is seen as an effort to preempt action by the new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court.
Both moves have long-term implications for democracy in a coveted swing state where presidential races are often decided by less than a percentage point.
The new court will hear decisions about the 2024 election. In 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard challenges by former President Donald Trump and his allies to Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state — and came within one justice’s vote of throwing out the outcome.
And the removal of the top elections official could mean chaos for the state’s voting administration just months before the 2024 presidential primary.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The second seeks a complete overhaul of how Wisconsin’s gerrymandered legislative maps are crafted in the future, and is seen as an effort to preempt action by the new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court.
In 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard challenges by former President Donald Trump and his allies to Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state — and came within one justice’s vote of throwing out the outcome.
“Simply expressing views or opinions on legal issues is not a commitment that requires recusal,” said Rob Yablon, who co-directs the State Democracy Research Initiative at UW-Madison.
If the proposal passes the legislature and is vetoed by Evers, the current Wisconsin maps will stay in place — and the redistricting lawsuits will likely land before the state Supreme Court.
Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general immediately filed a lawsuit asserting that the hearing carried no legal weight because Wolfe — who has held the nonpartisan post since 2019 — had never been officially nominated to a second term.
“Wisconsinites have expressed concerns with the administration of elections both here in Wisconsin and nationally,” said Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, who pushed forward the confirmation proceedings, before the party-line vote to fire Wolfe.
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