Elections Commission names its new leader
No. 2 official on the track to be its director after unanimous vote
MADISON – The Wisconsin Elections Commission promoted its No. 2 official to its top position Friday after its embattled director announced he would leave the agency.
The commission of three Republicans and three Democrats voted unanimously to appoint Assistant Director Meagan Wolfe as interim director and put her on a path to be permanent director.
“I am interested and willing to do whatever I can to continue the important work we do here at the Elections Commission,” Wolfe told reporters.
Wolfe will make $120,000 a year in her new job. She replaces Michael Haas, who said this week he planned to step down as director and eventually leave the agency altogether. In the meantime, he will serve as a staff attorney there.
Republican Commissioner Dean Knudson wanted to make Wolfe the temporary director while the commission conducted a national search for a permanent director, but the commission on a 1-5 vote rejected that idea. Knudson then joined the other commissioners in voting to pursue making Wolfe the permanent director.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) issued a statement praising the decision to appoint Wolfe, saying he met with her last week and was impressed with her knowledge of election security issues and good relationship with municipal clerks who run elections at the local level. But he did not say whether he would seek to have the Senate confirm Wolfe as permanent director.
“I am encouraged by the commission’s unanimous decision to promote Meagan Wolfe to interim director and restore stability to the top of the commission,” Fitzgerald said in his statement.
Wolfe’s promotion and Haas’ departure closes one chapter in the ongoing saga surrounding a John Doe investigation of Republicans that the state Supreme Court shut down in 2015 when it found no one committed any crimes. A legal fight over that probe continues.
Republican senators in January rejected Haas as director of the commission. They said the vote forced Haas from his job, but a divided commission agreed to keep him on.
A showdown over Haas’ status with the agency was expected as soon as next week, but his voluntary departure ended that possibility.
The probe of Republicans was conducted under the John Doe law, which allows prosecutors to compel people to produce documents and give testimony.
Prosecutors conducted it in consultation with the Government Accountability Board, which at the time was responsible for overseeing the state’s ethics and elections laws. Haas was the elections chief for that board.
Lawmakers and Walker disbanded the accountability board in response to the probe and replaced it with the Elections Commission and the state Ethics Commission.
Wolfe also previously worked for the accountability board, though she was not involved in the John Doe investigation.
She started working for the accountability board in 2011 and transitioned to the Elections Commission along with other workers when the new agency was created. Before becoming assistant director last year, she was responsible for informing the public about the state’s voter ID law and other election processes.
Wolfe said she did not know if her work for the accountability board would dim her chances of getting confirmed by the Senate.
“I don’t have the crystal ball to know the answer to that one,” Wolfe said.