The Jury Didn't Buy a Wisconsin Election Official's Defense in Election Fraud Case

A Wisconsin election official tried to say she was a whistleblower pointing out flaws in our voting systems, but the jury felt otherwise. Kimberly Zapata, a former deputy director for the Milwaukee Election Commission, was found guilty on March 20 of misconduct in office and election fraud after ordering fake military ballots. However, she says it was never her intention for them to be processed. She was indicted last November. The trial lasted three days, where Zapata didn’t testify. The election cycle where Zapata pursued this fake military ballot scheme was during the 2022 midterms (via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel):

🚨🚨And here is,

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT,
Wisconsin Election Commission director Kimberly Zapata found guilty on all felony counts for falsifying military ballot

Zapata told investigators she was trying to prove there is fraud in our elections.That’s because the Democrat got caught, pic.twitter.com/pFpZTog6vK— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) March 21, 2024

A former top Milwaukee election official was convicted at trial Wednesday in a case in which she was criminally charged for creating fake names to order three military absentee ballots ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and having them sent to a state legislator.
The Milwaukee County jury took about five hours to deliver its verdict in the trial of former Milwaukee Election Commission deputy director Kimberly Zapata, 47, of Milwaukee.
She was found guilty on a felony charge of misconduct in public office and guilty on three misdemeanor counts of making a false statement to obtain an absentee ballot. Zapata was charged in November 2022. Sentencing is scheduled for May 2.
[…]
In a recording of a police interview with Zapata that was played again for the jury before the verdict, she is heard saying she acted without a plan and in a high-stress moment.
"I did not think it through," she said. "I didn't have some manipulative plan."
She said she made up the three people so no individual would be harmed.
Zapata said she sent the ballots to Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen because she knew she would not cast the ballots and because of her history with election fraud claims.
"She is the most vocal election fraud politician that I know of, and I thought that maybe this would make her stop and think and redirect her focus away from these outrageous conspiracy theories to something that's actually real," Zapata said.
Zapata said she originally had a "glimmer of hope" that one of the three clerks who received the ballot requests would raise questions and not issue it. That's not how it unfolded, however, and all three military absentee ballots were sent to Brandtjen's Menomonee Falls home.

Zapata did report her self-inflicted election wound, and the ballots were not counted. She faces up to five years in jail and a $13,000 fine.

Whatever the case, it shows that election integrity issues are alive. Every system needs maintenance and guardrails; Democrats assume everything is kosher with our election system. It’s not. The 2020 no doubt made it easier for shenanigans to occur with the tweaks to in-person voting that some secretaries of state enacted, changes that the courts retroactively ruled as illegal as some didn’t have the state legislature's approval.

It's peculiar that her party registration isn’t mentioned in most news reports, which is a tip-off that Zapata is likely a Democrat.

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