Trump Supporters Say They Have Enough Signatures to Force Recall of Wisconsin Assembly Speaker

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos addresses the Assembly during a legislative session in Madison, Wis., on Dec. 4, 2018. Andy Manis/Getty Images

Organizers of an effort to oust Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced on March 10 that their petition had collected enough signatures to trigger a recall election.

Mr. Vos’s response to certain election integrity efforts in the wake of the 2020 election drew the ire of supporters of former President Donald Trump who maintain that the election was stolen.

Campaign organizer Matt Snorek of Racine County now says the petition has collected more than the necessary 6,850 signatures from voters in Mr. Vos’s southeast Wisconsin district.

“With more than 10,000 signatures on our recall petition, they’ve said it loud and clear: they’re tired of the status quo and demand new representation,” Mr. Snorek said in a statement.

The petition accuses Mr. Vos of “blocking fair elections” and misleading the Wisconsin Assembly about his intentions to impeach the state’s top election official. Other grievances cited include the speaker’s support for the use of ballot drop boxes and his outspoken opposition to President Trump.

The signatures will be presented to the Wisconsin Elections Commission on March 11.

Mr. Vos has waved off the initiative as a “misguided” and unserious effort that would only waste time and resources. He repeated that stance on March 10, questioning the validity of the collected signatures and promising to have his team scrutinize “each individual signature.”

The move to oust Mr. Vos shows that concerns over the 2020 election and election integrity still linger in the Badger State.

Wisconsin was one of the key battleground states. On election night, President Trump was leading Wisconsin before a haul of votes for then-candidate Joe Biden flipped the script overnight.

The results were upheld by two partial recounts and an independent audit. A special counsel investigation, however, uncovered numerous alleged instances of votes cast by mentally incompetent nursing home residents, noncitizens, and ineligible felons.

Mr. Vos hired former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in July 2021 to lead that investigation. A year later, he fired him amid multiple open records lawsuits relating to the probe.

Mr. Gableman has claimed that Mr. Vos “never wanted a real investigation” in the first place.

The lawmaker drew further criticism from Trump supporters when he failed to decertify the election results after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in July 2022 that the use of ballot drop boxes—which was widespread during the 2020 election—is illegal.

The ruling prompted a Truth Social post from the former president urging Mr. Vos to “turn over the election to the actual winner.”

President Trump also made the request via phone, according to the speaker.

“He makes his case, which I respect,” Mr. Vos told WISN at the time. “He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained it’s not allowed under the Constitution. He has a different opinion, and then he put out the tweet. So that’s it.”

The campaign to recall the lawmaker is supported by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who spoke at an event promoting the initiative on Feb 4.

“Robin Vos has been the biggest blocker to this country’s efforts to secure our elections there is. Nobody’s worse than Robin Vos,” he told WISN, asserting that the lawmaker buried Mr. Gableman’s report.

Mr. Lindell has been a prominent voice among those still questioning the 2020 election results. His legal team will file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the integrity of voting machines on behalf of Arizona’s ex-gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on March 14.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.