Group seeks to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos a second time

MADISON – A group of election conspiracy theorists and supporters of Donald Trump seeking to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Tuesday submitted a new batch of petitions that they say contain enough signatures to trigger a recall election of the state Legislature's top Republican after their first attempt failed.

Now, the group says they have more than 9,000 signatures, exceeding the required number by about 2,100. Wisconsin Elections Commission staff will now review the signatures to determine whether enough are valid ? a process that turned up forgeries and other invalid signatures during the group's first attempt.

“We didn't spend a lot of thought or time strategizing on the first recall about how to prevent or how to block the recall process from being invaded or sabotaged by people who were not invited ? those people who came from out of state,” said former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who is helping lead the recall effort. “When the sufficient number of signatures is validated out of this batch, Robin is going to lose the recall.”

Members of the bipartisan state Elections Commission rejected the group’s first recall effort in April after commission staff determined the group didn’t gather enough signatures in the correct legislative districts and found petition circulators illegally forged signatures.

The recall efforts are led by a group of Racine County-area supporters of former President Trump who want to oust Vos over his criticism of Trump and his refusal to take up legislative efforts to impeach WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe.

Gableman has recently emerged as a spokesman for the effort after being hired by Vos in 2021 to probe the 2020 presidential election. He is now helping lead the recall effort with petitioner Matthew Snorek, a resident of Racine County. In April, Gableman said the first recall was “sabotaged” and “infiltrated by outsiders from New York and Florida,” efforts he said were tied to Vos without evidence.

“I like my mechanics, I like my surgeons, I like my lawyers [to have] 30 years of experience. My politicians, not so much," Snorek said. "Two, 4, 6 is more than enough."

Last week, Gableman claimed to former Trump White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon in a podcast interview that "If he's still in office in November, I promise you that Donald Trump will not be the declared winner of Wisconsin ? it's that bad."

Organizers of the first recall effort submitted more than 10,000 signatures to the WEC in March, but election commission staff said not enough of them were from residents in the 63rd district, where Vos was elected when the recall started.

Vos was elected to the old 63rd Assembly District, but after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down old maps as unconstitutional, organizers would have needed 7,195 signatures to meet recall law in the new 33rd Assembly District. Organizers of the effort fell about 945 signatures short.

Vos in a Tuesday statement said the Recall Vos organization "engaged in election fraud on a massive scale."

"Signatures were forged (including those of children), recall signers were lied to and threatened into signing, and out-of-state felons were used to gather signatures," Vos said of the first recall attempt. "Once again, we look forward to rooting out any criminality and ensuring that anyone who participates in an effort to defraud Wisconsin voters is held accountable.”

Recall organizers sought to unseat Vos over Trump, Wolfe

??Recall organizers have criticized Vos for obstructing efforts to impeach Wolfe after he in January blocked a resolution to launch impeachment proceedings against her. State Senate President Chris Kapenga had previously urged Vos to advance the articles.

In September, Assembly Republicans put forward 15 articles of impeachment against Wolfe tying her to debunked election lies and falsely claiming she was directly responsible for decisions made by the commission. All 15 contained false or misleading claims about how election administration works in Wisconsin. The commission faced harsh criticism from Republicans over Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election in Wisconsin.

The group of recall organizers in November spent tens of thousands on television and radio ads that falsely claimed Wolfe implemented policies decided by the agency’s panel of commissioners and threatened to unseat Vos if he refused to move forward with efforts to impeach Wolfe.

Vos in March endorsed Trump’s presidency, but conservative activists behind the recall effort also took issue with his outspoken criticism of the candidate.

In 2021, Vos refused to take steps to overturn Trump’s election loss in Wisconsin and later pledged to ensure he wouldn’t secure the GOP nomination. The loss of about 20,000 votes in the state in part prompted the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters, who badgered Vos to decertify the election result and sowed divisiveness within Wisconsin’s Republican base. Trump backed a write-in campaign for Vos’ 2022 primary challenger Adam Steen, who Vos easily defeated with 73% of the vote.

The state elections commission asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to weigh in on whether a recall election should take place in the district Vos was originally elected to or under the new district boundary lines taking effect before the November election, but the Court in April declined to offer clarity.

Vos, the Assembly’s longest-serving speaker, has represented Wisconsin’s 63rd Assembly District since 2005. The latest Marquette Law School polls on Vos show he is deeply unpopular, with 17% favorability in April and February.

Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Rachel Hale may be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Supporters of Trump again seek to oust Vos through recall after failing once