Robin Vos

After Democratic nominee Tony Evers won the 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election, defeating incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker, Vos was the first public official to propose curbing the incoming governor's powers.[21] He claimed it was to restore a balance of power between the governor and the legislature, despite having previously voted to expand gubernatorial power.[22][23] Vos also said the changes were intended to lock in laws passed by Republicans and to prevent the incoming Democratic administration from fulfilling its campaign pledges, particularly a pledge to withdraw Wisconsin from a lawsuit seeking to overturn the federal Affordable Care Act.[24] The Republican-led legislature was called into a December lame duck session and passed laws decreasing the powers of the incoming governor, limiting early voting, and giving the legislature more control. Outgoing governor Walker then signed the bill.[25]

Christopher Beem of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy at Pennsylvania State University described Wisconsin Republicans' power grab as a "deeply undemocratic act." While it could be legal, Beem said, it erodes democratic norms: "Wisconsin’s GOP lawmakers are using power that the majority of the electorate has just taken away from them in order to make it more difficult for the incoming administration to undertake actions that the majority has just shown that it wants."[26] In June 2019 the conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the December 2018 laws, ruling that extraordinary sessions are constitutional.[27]

Robin Vos on election day during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In April 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Vos opposed calls by Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, to delay the state's primary election from early April to late May, to make it a mail-in election, and to mail ballots to all registered voters.[28][29] The legislature adjourned without taking action on any of those proposals. When the governor then issued a last-minute emergency order to suspend in-person voting, Vos and the state senate majority leader appealed the order to the state supreme court, which overturned it, and the election was held as scheduled.[30] Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was estimated that many voters would be effectively disenfranchised, and in-person voting was also considered a public health risk.[28][31] According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Vos had no answer to how local election officials are supposed to keep people safe as a massive shortage of poll workers has resulted in the closure or reduction of polling locations, forcing more people to vote at a single site."[32] Vos said, "If you are bored at home and sick of watching Netflix, volunteer to go and help at the polls."[32]

On election day, Vos served as an election inspector.[33] While dressed in full-body personal protective equipment,[34] he said it was "incredibly safe" to vote at the polls.[33] Epidemiologists and public health experts said that it was not possible to definitively determine the extent to which the virus spread among Wisconsin voters at polling places, due to a lack of testing and contact tracing; the difficulty of determining the location where an infected person acquired the virus; and asymptomatic transmission.[35]

Due to the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature's slowness to waive a requirement that unemployed Wisconsinites wait a week before they can be reimbursed unemployment benefits, Wisconsin lost $25 million in federal funding from the CARES Act. Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had been warned that this would happen if the waiver was not passed in time.[36]

Also during the pandemic, Vos sued Evers for implementing a face mask mandate to hinder the virus's spread.[37] The legislature could convene a session to strike down Evers's mandate, but Wisconsin Republicans opted to sue instead, so as to prevent vulnerable Republican legislators from having to vote against face mask mandates just before an election.[37]