The Wisconsin Senate debates the Republican-authored state budget that cuts income taxes, increases funding for K-12 schools and reduces funding for the University of Wisconsin, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)

On Thursday afternoon, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin state Senate voted on party lines to remove Meagan Wolfe, the state’s nonpartisan chief election official, from office.

After all 22 Republicans in the body voted to remove Wolfe, cheers from 2020 election deniers in the gallery that pushed for her removal broke out.

In 2019, the Wisconsin Senate unanimously confirmed Wolfe to a four-year term that ended in June of this year. But Republicans have been calling for Wolfe’s resignation since the 2020 elections, as she’s been at the center of false conspiracy theories regarding a supposed plan to rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Joe Biden.

When Wolfe’s term ended June, the Election Commission deadlocked, with the three Democrats abstaining from the vote to avoid Wolfe’s reappointment confirmation going before the Republican dominated-state Senate. However, the state GOP claimed that three Republican commissioners voting against her reappointment was enough to get Wolfe’s confirmation vote in front of the Senate, and they took the Commission’s recommendation to deny her a second term.

Democrats are urging Wolfe to continue showing up to work, and they plan to challenge her confirmation vote in court. Experts also worry that a less-experienced commissioner would risk the security of the 2024 election.

Wolfe is a Waupaca County native who began working for the Wisconsin Elections Commission in 2011. She worked her way to become the elections IT director and deputy administrator before the three Republicans and Democrats on the commission elected her the interim administrator in 2018 prior to her full confirmation.