A Milwaukee election official could face criminal charges accusing him of fraudulently requesting mail-in ballots reserved for members of the military and sending them to a Republican lawmaker known for embracing baseless 2020 election conspiracy theories.
Milwaukee Election Commission Deputy Director Kimberly Zapata, 44, of South Milwaukee, was fired by Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson this week after Johnson discovered she had requested the ballots. Johnson said Zapata’s actions may have been intended to show voter fraud was possible.
“This has all the appearance of a gross and egregious breach of trust,” Johnson said. “Election integrity is absolutely integral. It’s absolutely essential.”
Milwaukee County prosecutors are considering charging Zapata with embezzlement of office, a felony, and unlawfully requesting a ballot, a misdemeanor, a source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
District Attorney John Chisholm said in a statement that his office is reviewing allegations of voter fraud and that prosecutors “expect charges to be filed in the coming days.”
Michael Maistelman, who represents Zapata, declined to answer questions.
“We’re going to argue this in the courtroom, not in the media,” said Maistelman, // who often represents Democrats including Gov. Tony Evers.
Johnson held a press conference on Thursday but left before reporters were done asking questions about it.
The revelation five days before the November 8 midterm elections is potentially explosive at a time when Republicans have questioned the safety of mail-in voting, and in Milwaukee in particular, since former President Donald Trump began to falsely accuse Milwaukee election officials of rigging the 2020 election.
At Thursday’s press conference, Johnson said he learned on Wednesday that Zapata “apparently looked up fictitious military ballots” on a state election website and directed them to Brandtjen.
Zapata’s actions may have been an effort to expose the vulnerability of the state’s electoral system, he said.
“It doesn’t matter to me that the alleged crime didn’t take place at work,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me that the City of Milwaukee ballots weren’t part of it, or that there was no attempt to illegally vote or tamper with the election results.”
City officials revoked Zapata’s access to city offices and computer systems when they learned of her actions and she was fired, Johnson said.
He said that while there are no other indications of violations by Zapata, city officials are “investigating the possibility of other wrongdoing.”
Zapata had been with the Elections Commission for about seven years and the city about 10 years, said Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg.
She was appointed deputy director of the electoral commission this summer.
“So far, we have never had any indication of any type of violation of work policies or procedures,” Woodall-Vogg said. “We will of course take a further look at it, but so far it has been opened and we have no indication of concern at this stage. That does not mean that we will not examine all aspects of the elections in which she participated.
Johnson spokesman Jeff Fleming said at this point the city’s Elections Commission is leading the review, but others inside and outside of city government are expected to also look at previous elections in which Zapata was involved.
He declined to answer questions about why Zapata apparently approached city officials, who she spoke with and when the ballots were sent out. Fleming instead directed questions to Maistelman or the district attorney’s office, who declined to provide further details about the case.
When asked how they learned of Zapata’s actions, Woodall-Vogg replied that “the employee was open.”
Under state law, military voters are not required to register to vote and do not have to provide photo ID or any other identification.
“I believe she was pointing out that you can go into the public system, invent a person and request a ballot,” Woodall-Vogg said, adding that city officials understand she sent it to Brandtjen to alert him. system vulnerability.
Johnson said faith in Milwaukee’s election should not be shaken because city officials were clear about what happened and Zapata was fired immediately.
At that point, he and Woodall-Vogg left as reporters shouted questions.
Zapata’s termination means Woodall-Vogg will instead oversee the city’s central counting operation, where all mail-in ballots are counted on Nov. 8.
State Representative Janel Brandtjen contacted law enforcement after receiving three mail-in ballots she did not request
On Monday, the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department said it was investigating who requested mail-in ballots on behalf of members of the military and sent them to the home of state Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee. Falls.
Brandtjen, who heads the Assembly Elections Committee, said Monday she believes the episode involves someone copying the actions of a Racine County man who believes voter fraud deprived Donald Trump of his a victory in 2020 and wanted to prove that voter fraud was possible.
On Thursday, Brandtjen suggested that Zapata’s actions highlight issues lawmakers need to address.
“We’ve uncovered so many issues that demand attention. I’ve been attacked by liberal media, Democrats who benefit from the system, and Republicans who don’t have the guts to tackle issues, including the President Vos, who referred to me as a conspiracy theorist,” Brandtjen said.
Brandtjen said Monday she contacted law enforcement and former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who oversaw a partisan review of the 2020 electionafter receiving three ballots from clerks in Menomonee Falls, where Brandtjen lives, South Milwaukee and Shorewood to three different women with the first name Holly.
The sheriff’s department is working with the Waukesha County prosecutor to investigate, the department announced Monday.
“We are still collecting data from the WEC regarding Rep. Brandtjen’s concerns that she outlined in her recent press release. We plan to work with our law enforcement partners as appropriate. , to respond to the allegations,” Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Riley Vetterkind said in a statement. Monday. Vetterkind on Thursday did not immediately react to Zapata’s actions.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, who is endorsed by Trump and has endorsed his false claims about the 2020 election, said Thursday he would replace the Wisconsin Elections Commission with a “Wisconsin Election Integrity Group” that included members of the state’s eight congressional districts, five of which are represented by Republicans.
Michels suggested he would not seek to eliminate the state’s MyVote website for requesting mail-in ballots, which Zapata and Wait used to commit voter fraud.
Before knowing who was at fault, Brandtjen called the episode an effort to expose loopholes in election law, comparing it to alleged crimes against Harry Wait, a leader of a Racine County-based group known as the HOT government name that promotes false allegations of voter fraud. in the 2020 elections.
waiting was loaded earlier this year with two counts of voter fraud and two counts of unauthorized use of an individual’s personally identifiable information to impersonate Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason to request their ballots in order to show that violations of the law are possible.
Ahead of his first court appearance in the case in September, Wait compared himself to founding fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
“My actions are in the spirit of the organic law of this nation, upon which the action in civil disobedience was based,” he said. told reporters at a press conference. “I have acted in the same manner as the founder of this nation. For this reason, I am certain that my actions are indeed both legal and in accordance with the organic law of the nation.”
A post on the group’s social media channel Wait on Monday called Brandtjen a “patriot” for highlighting what the group calls problems with the state’s system for requesting mail-in ballots. Changing the process for the military would force lawmakers to act. Under state law, service members are exemption from registering to vote or provide photo ID.
After Zapata’s news broke on Thursday, Wait congratulated her. He wrote online that he hailed her “due to her efforts to expose more voting vulnerabilities in MyVote.”
As chair of the elections committee, Brandtjen repeatedly held hearings promoting false allegations of voter fraud and conspiracy theories for the 2020 election.
“If another Republican has committed voter fraud, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I hope whoever did this is caught so we can send a clear message that this will not be tolerated,” said Democratic State Rep. Mark Spreitzer of Beloit, a member of the Assembly Elections Committee, said in a statement. “For obvious reasons, military voters must be able to vote by mail, and we should not tolerate anyone who wants to make our military pawns for their political agenda.”