WISCONSIN — A second attempt has been launched to recall Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos after the first effort fell short of required signatures, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) confirmed.
It’s being led by the same organizer as the first attempt, Matthew Snorek, who is from southeastern Wisconsin. WEC said Snorek filed a petition indicating his intent to circulate a new petition.
It comes as the first effort by Snorek is still under review by the Racine County district attorney due to allegations of fraud. One day after recall, organizers asked a court to give them more time to rehabilitate signatures that Vos challenged on the first recall petition. Organizers on Thursday said they weren’t giving up hope on the first attempt, calling the new one a “concurrent” effort.
Vos was initially targeted for the recall because he refused to impeach the state’s top elections official or proceed with attempting to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Wisconsin. His actions angered Trump, who accused Vos of covering up election corruption, while Trump’s followers mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge in 2022.
The second recall effort says he should be recalled because of his “tacit support for the Chinese Communist Party,” lack of commitment to election integrity, blocking lower prescription drug costs and “flagrant disrespect for his own constituents by calling them ‘whack-jobs, morons and idiots.’”
Vos made that comment last week when deriding the recall effort, including mocking their claims that he is secretly working for the Chinese government.
“The whack jobs who are running the recall against me said I am an agent of the Chinese Communist Party,” he said at a WisPolitics.com luncheon. “That was the last text that they sent out in desperation to show people somehow that I am not a conservative Republican.
Vos, the longest serving Assembly speaker in Wisconsin history, declined Thursday to comment on the latest recall effort.
Recall organizer Matthew Snorek did not return an email seeking comment. Recall organizers said in a statement Thursday that their goal was “to fortify the integrity of the recall process, ensuring that each step we take is marked by precision, transparency, and trust.”
Ultimately, it’s up to the bipartisan Wisconsin Election Commission to determine whether enough valid signatures are gathered to force a recall election. The commission has not voted on the first filing, but its initial review found that not enough valid signatures collected from residents of the district Vos was elected to represent.
The initial petition for recall appeared to fall more than 900 signatures short of the number needed to force a recall. In Vos’ current district, circulators would need 6,850 valid signatures; recall organizers collected more than 10,000.
Elections commission staff said several weeks ago confirmed that 9,053 potentially valid signatures were collected. But of those, only 5,905 were from the district Vos was elected to serve in, which is 945 signatures short of what was needed.
Vos said he had found up to 400 duplicated signatures with missing and misspelled information and the names of people who didn’t actually sign. He predicted fewer than half the nearly 11,000 signatures submitted would be found to be valid.
The issue is only more complicated because the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court in December tossed the legislative maps that were last used in 2022 and barred them from being used in future elections. However, the new maps signed into law last month by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers don’t take effect until November.
That leaves questions about what boundary lines should be used for the recall effort.
The Supreme Court has not said yet whether it will rule on that question or when.
Recall organizers faced a Tuesday deadline to rebut challenges Vos made to their signatures. Instead, they asked the Dane County circuit court to give it more time to review the challenges. In a court filing, organizers asked that they have until five days after the Supreme Court rules on which district boundary is in effect.
The circuit court scheduled a Friday hearing in that case.
Vos has said the first recall petition fell “woefully short” of the signatures needed, no matter what legislative district is used, and was rife with fraud and criminal activity. The Racine County district attorney was also investigating claims that the petitions included names of people who did not sign it.
The elections commission has until April 11 to decide whether there are enough valid signatures on the original petition to order a recall election. Its decision can be appealed in court. If successful, the recall is likely to be scheduled in June.
The new recall petition would be due May 28, which means any recall election likely wouldn’t be until September. That would put it after the Aug. 13 primary, where Vos could face a challenge ahead of the November general election.