MADISON, Wis. – Supporters of former President Donald Trump said Tuesday they have enough signatures to force the recall of Wisconsin’s top elected Republican, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, after their first effort failed.
They targeted Vos, the longest-serving Assembly speaker in Wisconsin history, after he refused to impeach the official overseeing elections in the swing state, angering Trump and his followers.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission must determine whether there are enough valid signatures to trigger a recall election. The panel rejected the first attempt due to not having enough valid signatures.
Petition circulators said they would submit more than 8,000 signatures collected from voters in the district where Vos was most recently elected to serve in 2022. They need 6,850 valid signatures to force a recall of the election.
In March, the group submitted more than 9,000 signatures, but of these the electoral commission determined that only 5,905 were valid.
The commission asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to clarify whether any recall election would have to take place in the district where Vos was elected to serve, or under the new district boundaries that will take effect for the regular November election.
The court refused to clarify or change its December ruling that found the current maps unconstitutional and banned their future use.
In the first recall attempt, Vos challenged the validity of thousands of signatures and declared that the effort failed regardless of the district lines used. He ridiculed those who attack him as “crazy and idiots.”
Vos declined to comment Tuesday until the petitioners submitted signatures.
In Wisconsin, candidates can be removed if they are defeated in a recall election. As of Tuesday, there had been no candidate announced to challenge Vos if enough signatures were collected to force an election.
Vos has 10 days to dispute the collected signatures. He can object for a variety of reasons, including because a person signed more than once, signed someone else’s name, or does not live in the legislative district. He may also object if he believes the person who distributed the petition misled the signer about his intention or if the signature was not collected during the permitted circulation period.
The election commission has 31 days to determine whether the petition has enough valid signatures, which can be appealed in court. If a petition is deemed sufficient, a recall election must be called six weeks later.
The commission meets on June 27, one day before the deadline to determine whether a recall should be ordered. If you vote at that meeting to call one, under state law the election would be Aug. 6 — just a week before the regular fall primary on Aug. 13.
If more than two candidates run in a recall election, the primary would be on August 6, with the recall election on September 3.
This could potentially create a scenario in which recall elections or recall primaries are decided a week before Vos appears in the Aug. 13 primary election as a candidate for a new two-year term as speaker of the House, starting in January.
No Republican has yet filed to challenge Vos in the November primary.
If he is recalled, Vos will lose his position for the rest of the year. The Legislature is not scheduled to return to session until January.
Vos angered Trump and his supporters in Wisconsin by refusing calls to decertify President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state in 2020. Biden’s victory of about 21,000 votes withstood two partial recounts, multiple lawsuits, an independent audit and a review by a conservative law firm. . Vos further angered Trump supporters when he did not support a plan to impeach Meagan Wolfe, the state’s top election official.
Wolfe has been a target of those who falsely believe Trump won Wisconsin in 2020.
Vos repeatedly said he was not in favor of impeaching Wolfe because there was not enough support among his Republican colleagues to do so. He said he wants to see Wolfe replaced, but last year a judge blocked the Legislature from taking action to remove her.
