Wisconsin: Assembly Speaker recall appears to have failed for the 2nd time

The second recall effort against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos appears to have failed, with reports that the petitions include hundreds of duplicates, people signing after the deadline, as well as questionable signature collectors.

Petitioners turned in over 9000 signatures for the recall  and needed 7195. See below for the full discussion on the signature amount. In the first effort, also led by former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, they handed in 11000. 

If it gets on the ballot, Vos could be facing the dual recall + reelection on the same day. Michigan Speaker Andy Dillion did that in 2008 (surviving both). 

Vos, a long-time fixture of this blog, is facing the recall over his refusal to support Trump during the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election results and the decision to drop impeachment efforts against Wisconsin's Election Commission Chair Meagan Wolfe as she has refused to push for the discredited claims of election fraud.

Vos almost lost in 2022 after refusing to back the election fraud claims. Gableman, who has previously targeted Vos (after Vos appointed him to head a committee looking at fraud), had called for his recall if he didn't support the impeachment of Wolfe. 

The first recall effort failed, with the Wisconsin Election Commission announcing that the recall would have failed under either his new or old district (see below for a discussion).

The petitioners needed 6850 under the old district, and they got only 4989. In the new district, they needed 7195 and got 3053. The Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to rule on which district counted. They apparently handed in 11000.

The Daily Kos has a good explanation for the challenge of deciding what district Vos is a part of (this is after the old districts were tossed out by the State Supreme Court).