Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Sunday called for reform and new leadership within the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
In an interview with WISN, Vos expressed concern over the state agency, especially after allegations made by Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling.
After an investigation, Schmaling claimed that voting fraud had occurred at a Mount Pleasant nursing home, after the election commission voted to send agents into nursing homes to assist residents because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Election statute was in fact not just broken, but shattered by members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission,” Schmaling said.
After the allegations, Vos doubled down on his calls for new leadership.
People’s trust in Wisconsin’s elections has been tested. Many Wisconsinites feel elections are not safe and secure, and now the Racine County Sheriff’s investigation found clear violations and law-breaking within the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC),” Vos said in a statement. “Clearly there is a severe mismanagement of WEC, and a new administrator is needed. I am calling for the resignation of Meagan Wolfe as Elections Commission Administrator.”
“Cover-ups and complacency with law-breaking are red flags Wisconsinites cannot ignore.”
However, the Wisconsin Election Commission has denied some of the allegations made by Schmaling.
“To put it simply, we did not break the law,” said Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, an attorney from Milwaukee. “In fact, without action from the Commission, many residents in Wisconsin care facilities could have and would have been disenfranchised and not able to vote in the 2020 elections.”
Furthermore, Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe told reporters she would not step down from her post, calling the statement from Vos “partisan politics at its worst.”
Previously, the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) released its findings of an audit on the state’s November 2020 election.
Based on its findings, the group recommended 30 suggestions to the Wisconsin Elections Commission for improving the election process, 18 of which are “issues for legislative consideration.”
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Robin Vos” by Wisconsin State Representative Robin Vos and photo “Wisconsin state capitol” by Vijay Kumar Koulampet CC BY-SA 3.0.
