By Joseph Ax

Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Senate voted on Thursday to oust the state's nonpartisan top elections official, Meagan Wolfe, a frequent target of right-wing attacks since Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.

Democrats say the process to remove Wolfe is illegal, and the matter is expected to be resolved in the courts. Voting rights advocates have argued that the Republican move will fuel conspiracy theories about the integrity of the state's election system ahead of 2024, when Wisconsin is likely to be a crucial swing state in the U.S. presidential race.

Wolfe has been the administrator for the state's elections commission since 2018.

In June, the bipartisan commission deadlocked on whether to nominate her to another four-year term, after Democrats deliberately abstained from the vote because they feared the Republican-majority Senate would not confirm her. That left the commission short of the four votes needed under state law to reappoint Wolfe.

Democrats have pointed to a recent state Supreme Court ruling that officials whose terms expire remain in their position in the absence of a legitimate replacement.

"The Senate cannot simply manufacture a nomination that does not exist," Democratic Senator Mark Spreitzer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "Any vote that is taken today on this nomination has no legal force."

In August, the state's Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, said in a letter that "there is no question" that Wolfe is still administrator and that the nomination before the Senate was improper.

Wolfe and the commission have faced sustained right-wing criticism since the 2020 election, when Trump claimed falsely that he had won the state, citing unsubstantiated claims of fraud. Trump is now the front-runner in the Republican nominating race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024.

Republicans have also faulted Wolfe and the commission for policies adopted during the coronavirus pandemic intended to make it easier to vote, such as ballot drop boxes, which were later deemed illegal by the state Supreme Court.

The Republican majority leader of the Senate, Devin LeMahieu, said Wisconsin voters needed to have confidence that there is no fraud in the state's elections.

"The fact is that Wisconsinites have expressed concerns with the administration of elections both here in Wisconsin and also nationally," he said on the floor.

The move against Wolfe is the latest effort by the Republican-controlled legislature to exert its influence over other branches of state government.

Some Republican lawmakers have threatened to impeach Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose electoral victory earlier this year gave liberals a majority on the high court for the first time in years.

The court is expected to decide whether to uphold the state's 19-century abortion ban in the coming months, among other significant cases. Republicans have faulted Protasiewicz for public comments she made during the campaign that they say demonstrated she is improperly biased.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Daniel Wallis)