A Milwaukee Election Official’s Firing, Fraudulent Ballots, And Felony Charge Fuel WI Scandal Right Before Midterms

MADISON, Wis. — As Milwaukee’s second-highest-ranking elections official faces charges in the city’s latest election scandal, the lawmaker she targeted is asking a critical question: Why would Kimberly Zapata risk her job, her excellent benefits, and her freedom when she could have just stepped forward with her concerns?

On Friday, the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office charged Zapata with a felony count of misconduct in office and three misdemeanor counts of making a false statement to obtain an absentee ballot.

The charges come a day after Mayor Cavalier Johnson announced at a hastily called press conference that Zapata had been fired as deputy administrator of the Milwaukee Election Commission after she allegedly requested three absentee ballots meant for military members and had them sent to state Rep. Janel Brandtjen’s home.

Zapata faces a total of five years in prison and up to $13,000 in fines if found guilty of the charges.

According to the criminal complaint, Zapata “sent the ballots in the names of three fictitious military voters to make a point about the existence of fraud in the voting system — though she said this was not the same situation as people who are involved in conspiracy theories,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Zapata told investigators she was only trying to get Brandtjen’s attention in an attempt to redirect her focus from “outrageous conspiracy theories and to something that is actually real.” 

Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) chairs the Assembly committee that has investigated election integrity complaints for the better part of two years. She immediately informed authorities about the fraudulently obtained ballots sent to her home and said she does not know Zapata. Brandtjen is skeptical of the deputy elections chief’s explanation. 

“If this clerk wanted my attention, why would she risk her job, her comfortable pension, her reputation, and going to jail when she could have just picked up the phone and called me to have a private conversation?” Brandtjen asked. “We (the committee) could have exposed this problem just as easily without putting her career and freedom at risk.” 

It’s a good question and one the Journal Sentinel and others don’t appear to be asking. But then again, the Journal Sentinel has been too busy painting Brandtjen and anyone who has raised election integrity questions over the last couple of years as conspiracy theorists. Brandtjen said that, as of Friday, the Journal Sentinel had yet to reach out to her.

In the complaint, Zapata said her alleged actions were different than those of Harry Wait of Racine County-based citizen action group Honest, Open, and Transparent Government (HOT). Wait is facing two counts of election fraud and two counts of unauthorized use of an individual’s personal identifying information after he was accused of using Wisconsin’s state election website to request absentee ballots be sent to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Racine Mayor Cory Mason.

Wait, too, says he was trying to alert the public to the integrity flaws in Wisconsin’s absentee ballot system.

Wait’s case is different in one crucial

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