A top Milwaukee elections official has been fired after sending out falsely obtained military absentee ballots to the home of a state lawmaker the city’s mayor said Thursday.
Kimberly Zapata, deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, requested military ballots for fake voters from clerks in nearby municipalities using the state’s MyVote Wisconsin website, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said just days before the midterm election.
“This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust, and this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement,” said Johnson.
As part of her job, Zapata oversaw the counting of absentee ballots in Milwaukee. The mayor said the city is investigating whether she might have committed any other offenses.
The ballots were sent to the home of state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the Assembly elections committee. Earlier this week, Brandtjen’s office said she had received three ballots for military voters she believed to be fictitious. Brandtjen said then she thought someone was trying to show how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin.
The announcement comes five days ahead of Election Day.
Zapata’s motive for allegedly obtaining and sending the ballots wasn’t immediately clear. Zapata’s boss, commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, said she thought Zapata was intent on illustrating a vulnerability in the system. She said Zapata had, to her knowledge, never before violated work policies or procedures.
Zapata’s alleged actions echo those of a Racine man who requested and received absentee ballots in the names of lawmakers and local officials in July. That man, Harry Wait, said he wanted to expose vulnerabilities in the state’s elections system. He has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of election fraud and two felony counts of identity theft — charges that could land him in prison for up to 13 years.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said his office was reviewing allegations against Zapata and that he expects charges to be filed “in the coming days.”
In Wisconsin, military voters are not required to register to vote, meaning they don’t need to provide a photo ID to request an absentee ballot.
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe called Zapata’s alleged action “a deeply unfortunate violation of trust.”
Zapata was fired immediately after the city was made aware that she might have been responsible, and she no longer has access to city computer networks or offices, the mayor said.
Zapata had worked for the elections commission for seven years and with the city of Milwaukee for nearly 10 years, according to Claire Woodall-Vogg, the elections commission’s executive director. She declined to comment on why Zapata might have requested the ballots.
Brandtjen said the episode vindicates the concerns she has raised about elections despite criticism from “the liberal media” and Republicans “who don’t have the backbone to take on the issues.”
Joe Biden was said to have defeated Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin.
In August, after Wait’s actions came to light, the election commission notified voters whose absentee ballot requests for the primary went to a mailing address different from the one on file to alert them of potential fraud.
