WEC staff finds Vos recall organizers submitted enough signatures, but legal questions remain

A Recall Vos sign in rural Racine County in March 2024. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

In a memo, staff for the Wisconsin Elections Commission found that groups attempting to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have gathered enough signatures to force a recall election in the 63rd District — the seat Vos was elected to in 2022.

However, because the map under which the 63rd District was created has been declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, it remains unanswered if a recall election can be held in the soon-to-be-nonexistent district. In the memo, prepared ahead of the commission’s meeting on Thursday, staff declined to make a recommendation on that legal question.

This is the recall group’s second attempt to force Vos out of office this year. A previous attempt fell short after the organizers gathered signatures from multiple districts. Ultimately the commission decided the organizers had failed to gather enough signatures from any district, regardless of which was the correct one. The WEC had also asked the state Supreme Court to issue an opinion stating which district should be used given that the Court had barred the previous maps from being used in any more elections, but the Court refused.

The recall organizers are seeking to oust Vos, the longest serving Assembly speaker in state history, over his perceived failure to go along with their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The effort to oust him has gained high profile supporters including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman — who Vos previously hired to conduct a widely derided review of the 2020 presidential election.

Vos nearly lost his primary election in 2022 after a similar faction of the party mobilized against him. His opponent, Adam Steen, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Steen and state Rep. Janel Brandtjen have since been accused by the state ethics commission of campaign finance violations during that primary race.

WEC staff found that if the recall is held in the 63rd District, the organizers have collected enough signatures, gathering 6,866 valid signatures while needing 6,850 to force the recall. If the recall is held in the new 33rd District, which is where Vos is running this fall, the group only has 3,807 valid signatures of the 7,195 required for sufficiency.

If the commission finds that the petition is successful, state law requires that the recall election be held the sixth Tuesday after the WEC rules, which would put the election on Aug. 6. However, if a primary is required — which is likely because Vos is being challenged by members of his own party — the primary will be Aug. 6 and the recall election would take place four weeks after that on Sept. 3.

Vos is also up for re-election in the fall and even if he’s recalled, his term is almost over and he would remain eligible to be re-elected.

Under this timeline, Vos could be on the recall primary ballot on Aug. 6, on the regular primary ballot Aug. 13, on the recall general ballot Sept. 3 and on the general election ballot Nov. 5.

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