Photo: Alamy
Former election official Kimberly Zapata, a Democrat from Milwaukee, has been found guilty of a felony related to obtaining fake absentee ballots.
According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Zapata, who worked as a deputy director at the Milwaukee Election Commission in October 2022, was charged with obtaining fake absentee ballots.
Following her trial this week, Zapata was found guilty by the jury at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. She will be sentenced on May 2 and faces up to five years of jail time.
AP News reported that in October 2022, Zapata used her work laptop to access three military absentee ballots. She did this by using fake social security numbers and names. Zapata then sent the ballots to Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen weeks before the elections.
According to AP News, Zapata claimed that she was stressed over so-called death threats from election conspiracy theorists and did this to highlight flaws in the system. Zapata had apparently never intended for the ballots to be used in the election.
However, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal did not believe this, and Wisconsin Public Radio reported on his comments about Zapata’s actions. Westphal said, “We rely on our election workers to maintain the integrity of our election system.”
He added, “Ms. Zapata took a tiny hammer and started chiseling away at that foundation. Instead of helping secure the absentee ballot system, she introduced fraud into that system.”