Vos recall effort underway

UNION GROVE — The President Donald Trump wing of the Republican Party told Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) in November 2023, that if he did not act to dismantle the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) and remove administrator Meagan Wolfe from her job, he would be removed from his.

The Recall Vos effort filed paperwork with the WEC on Wednesday and held a press conference on Thursday last week where they accused the speaker of standing in the way of election reform. The press conference was held at the Recall Vos headquarters in Union Grove.

The effort will need 6,800 signatures to trigger a recall.

Jay Schroeder, of Neenah, is leading the effort to recall Vos. He twice ran for secretary of state, in 2022 and 2014, and twice ran to represent Assembly District 55. His political focus is currently on election integrity.

Schroeder said Vos had the power to take action following the 2020 elections but failed to exercise that power.

However, Trump supporters are also concerned about Vos’ loyalty, quoting him as saying, “I will try as hard as I can to make sure Donald Trump is not the nominee (in 2024).”

“Robin Vos is the Liz Chaney of Wisconsin,” Schroeder said.

Although members of the pro-Trump camp have alleged malfeasance during the 2020 election, investigations have not turned up any evidence of such by any election official.

Meagan Wolfe and the WEC

The pro-Trump wing of the GOP blames his 2020 loss in Wisconsin on actions taken by the WEC generally and Wolfe specifically.

The WEC is a bipartisan commission overseeing the state’s elections, which is made up of three members of the Democratic Party and three members of the Republican Party, with nominees by Vos and Governor Tony Evers.

At the press conference, Schroeder took issue with actions carried out by Wolfe, which included the use of election drop boxes and voting in nursing homes, which he claimed were illegal.

Schroeder was also critical of municipalities that used grants – including Racine – from non-profits to offset the cost of elections, which the group refers to as Zuckerbucks due to the contributions from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s charitable foundation.

Lastly, Schroeder was critical of the lack of clean-up of the state’s voter rolls. He claimed his father remains on the voter rolls even though he has been dead for nine years.

Current problems

Vos has publicly said the Trump wing needs to move on and get over the 2020 loss.

But the operative word in play at the press conference was “current.” Schroeder told those assembled on Thursday the problems that threaten election integrity are ongoing and could impact elections of the future.

He said Thursday Vos had options with the WEC he did not pursue – such as completely defunding the commission.

“You give them a zero budget,” Schroeder said though he acknowledged the governor would have vetoed the budget under that scenario.

For lead petitioner Matt Snorek, of Racine County, the recall effort is about future elections.

He described himself as just a regular person, a business owner, with serious concerns about election integrity.

He also believes Vos is standing in the way of reform.

“Robin Vos is a grand illusionist,” Snorek said. “He’s almost like a magician. He’ll do just enough to make you think he’s fighting for your conservative values.”

“Robin Vos is a blocker and impediment to fair elections,” Snorek said.

Vos: The GOP took action

In an interview with the Racine County Eye, Vos pointed out the Republican Party actually took action to address issues, which he identified as:

• Ballot drop boxes
• Late-night ballot drops
• Private grant funding flowing to larger municipalities for poll workers
• Remote voting sites
• Personal protective equipment

“I think we have taken legitimate action to fix or at least attempt to fix each of those issues,” he said.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court banned drop boxes in 2022. The Wisconsin Senate recently held hearings on Republican-backed bills that would tighten restrictions on nursing home voting.

Vos pointed out there are about 6 million people in Wisconsin, and there were others more capable than Meagan Wolfe to oversee elections.

“I think it would have been wise for us to say somebody else should run the elections,” Vos said.

But Vos also reiterated that Wisconsin’s Constitution is clear: “You can’t just willy-nilly remove people,” he said.

“So what they want is to re-litigate 2020,” Vos said. “But I feel like we have addressed many of the issues.”

About municipality grants

The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a national nonprofit whose donors include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, distributed grants to 214 Wisconsin municipalities to help pay for poll workers, remote voting sites, ballot drop boxes and personal protective equipment before the 2020 election. Critics, such as the Thomas More Society, charged that the state’s five largest and generally Democratic-leaning municipalities got between two and four times more money per capita than other municipalities.

Additional reading

• Group continues to pressure Vos on WEC administrator impeachment resolution – Wisconsin Examiner
• The Wisconsin Elections Committee, Inc., threatens Vos with a recall

By Dee Holzel and Denise Lockwood