The Wisconsin Elections Commission is wrapping up the final details of the 2024 vote, and as 2025 approaches, one large question hovers over the agency: Will its Administrator Meagan Wolfe be allowed to remain in her position?

The answer will be provided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Nov. 18 on Wisconsin Elections Commission v. LeMahieu, a lawsuit that seeks to force her out.

Wolfe’s original four-year appointment as administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission ended in June 2023. Her appointment to another four-year term would require state Senate approval.

Meagan Wolfe, seated at center, is administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission which held a meeting on June 27, 2024 in Madison. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

At the time, the Republican majority in the state Senate were still playing up President-elect Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies. They wanted the six-member Commission to nominate Wolfe again so they could reject her, essentially firing her and forcing the commissioners to nominate a new administrator.

While the three Republican appointees to the Commission voted to advance Wolfe’s nomination, the three Democrats did not vote. Without a majority, Wolfe’s nomination was not officially sent to the state Senate and therefore she could not be rejected.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe gives an interview on July 11, 2024. The state Supreme Court is considering the contested status of her appointment to that position. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

After a lawsuit, Wolfe was allowed to keep her job as a legal holdover thanks to a 2022 decision when the Wisconsin Supreme Court was controlled by conservatives. They ruled Fred Prehn — nominated to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Board by Republican former Gov. Scott Walker — could stay in that position past the end of his six-year term as long as the state Senate refused to approve his successor, who was nominated by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Before the state Supreme Court, lawyers for Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul argued because a majority of the commission could remove the administrator at any time, there was no requirement to renominate after the four year term is up. Lawyers for the Republican-controlled Legislature argued that could mean the administrator stays on indefinitely.

“You are trying to thread the needle here that has no eye. Six of the seven of us sat in this courtroom two years ago when your client insisted that Fred Prehn should be able to retain his position on the DNR board even though his six -year term had expired and your client won,” said Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky, a liberal, in response to that argument. “This is a case of careful what you wish for, isn’t it? ”

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky speaks during oral arguments in “Wisconsin Elections Commission v. LeMahieu” about the status of the agency’s administrator Meagan Wolfe on Nov. 18, 2024, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison. “Six of the seven of us sat in this courtroom two years ago when your client insisted that Fred Prehn should be able to retain his position on the DNR board even though his six -year term had expired and your client won,” said Karofsky. (Credit: Courtesy of WISC-TV)

The lawyer for the Republican leadership in the state Legislature, Misha Tseytlin, responded.

“If Meghan Wolfe was nominated, was appointed by the Commission and sent over to the Senate, and the Senate acted the same way they did with Prehn, which is not hold hearings, then Meghan Wolfe would stay as a holdover exactly like Prehn did,” Tseytlin said.

Attorney Misha Tseytlin, representing Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, speaks during oral arguments in “Wisconsin Elections Commission v. LeMahieu” about the status of the agency’s administrator Meagan Wolfe on Nov. 18, 2024, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison. “If Meghan Wolfe was nominated, was appointed by the Commission and sent over to the Senate, and the Senate acted the same way they did with Prehn, which is not hold hearings, then Meghan Wolfe would stay as a holdover exactly like Prehn did,” Tseytlin said. (Credit: Courtesy of WISC-TV)

Wolfe and the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued a statement saying she serves at the will of the commissioners, who voiced unanimous support for her in their vote in June.