With only days remaining until the 2022 midterm elections, the Milwaukee Election Commission will be without its deputy director.
Seven-year commission member Kimberly Zapata was terminated after admitting to improperly soliciting military ballots.
WITI reports that Zapata delivered three votes to the residence of Republican state lawmaker Janel Brandtjen in order to demonstrate a vulnerability in the voting system.
“It’s my belief she was pointing out that you can go on to the public system, make up a person, and request a ballot,” said Claire Woodall-Vogg, the executive director of the commission.
The infractions of Zapata came to light after Brandtjen uploaded images of the votes sent to her residence last week.
Reportedly, the votes had fictitious identities, with the legislator stating, “I believe someone was trying to point out how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin. Registration for military ballots is not required.”
According to WITI, Brandtjen submitted the votes to the Waukesha County police, who then initiated an investigation.
The mayor of Milwaukee, Cavalier Johnson, expressed his indignation over Zapata’s behavior.
According to the Epoch Times, he remarked, “This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust, and this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement.”
The mayor was thorough in his condemnation, further stating, “I will not accept, I will not tolerate, and I certainly will not defend any misrepresentation by a city official involved in elections.”
“It does not matter that this might have been an effort to expose a vulnerability that state law created. It does not matter to me that the alleged crime did not take place at work. It does not matter to me that city of Milwaukee ballots were not part of this. Nor does it matter that there was no attempt to vote illegally or tamper with any election results,” Johnson stated.
As Brandtjen indicated previously, Wisconsin law does not require military personnel to register to vote.
More on this story via The Western Journal:
This is the apparent loophole that Zapata was trying to demonstrate as executive director Woodall-Vogg surmised.
According to WITI, Milwaukee election officials have already cut Zapata’s access to city databases and are now reviewing every election she was involved in. CONTINUE READING…