A former Milwaukee election official is fined $3,000 for obtaining fake absentee ballots

A former Milwaukee election official convicted of misconduct in office and fraud for obtaining fake absentee ballots was sentenced Thursday to one year of probation and fined $3,000.

Kimberly Zapata, 47, also was ordered to complete 120 hours of community service.

Prosecutors charged Zapata in November 2022 with one felony count of misconduct in public office and three misdemeanor counts of election fraud. A jury in March found her guiltyon all four counts.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Kori Ashley rejected an argument by Zapata’s attorneys that she was acting as a whistleblower, telling her before handing down the sentence that she had ways to make her point other than breaking the law.

Son_of_dad,

Remember when this woman was originally given 6 years for voting while on probation?

apnews.com/…/texas-voter-fraud-conviction-overtur…

Yet this other woman gets a slap in the wrist. Can you tell the difference between them?

bquintb,
@bquintb@midwest.social avatar

She sent the ballots to Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, an election conspiracy theorist, two weeks before the state’s gubernatorial and legislative elections.

Yep, Republican

UncleLuck,

Even though the Dems stole the 2020 election.

reddwarf,
@reddwarf@feddit.nl avatar

You forgot the “/s”.
That or you are a delusional nutjob.

UncleLuck,

Cope harder.

Nation

reddwarf,
@reddwarf@feddit.nl avatar

Cope with what? You make no sense but I’m not telling you anything new.

UncleLuck,

Try that in a small town.

reddwarf,
@reddwarf@feddit.nl avatar

You absolutely should, perhaps they will understand your ramblings.

So, how’s life as a troll? Driven by money or delusions of grandeur? Or just an a-hole? Perhaps all of the above?

Predictive responses from you:

  1. Nation
  2. Try that in a small town
  3. Daddy trump
  4. Laugh at all the crying libturd

You are not even a creative troll, just a boring repetitive troll. Sad.

extant,

Psssst, you’re arguing with a piece of software.

reddwarf,
@reddwarf@feddit.nl avatar

I know :-)

Sometimes it can be fun to see how far this can go, sort of an experiment and some form of catharsis release. My hope here was to feed the possible responses it has and see if there was a way out for it. Does not seem like it.

extant,

As long as you’re having fun that’s all that matters 😂

extant,

Pretty sure its a bot since it repeats the same thing everywhere.

xmunk,

They’re a delusional nut job and/or just a troll.

Treczoks,

As expected. Like many other stories, their election forgery, ballot box stuffing, and dead voters are nothing but projection.

tigeruppercut,

obtaining fake absentee ballots

I read the article but I still don’t understand this. Did she print fake ballots? Did she receive a stack of fake ballots from someone else? Did she send them to people so their votes wouldn’t count, or do anything else with the fake ballots other than have them?

I’m not trying to defend her I just have no idea what’s going on in this situation.

Boddhisatva,

You may not have scrolled far enough down. There’s a break in the page where it suggests other articles to read then the story continues underneath. The following is from near the end of the article.

Zapata served as deputy director at the Milwaukee Election Commission in October 2022 when she used her work-issued laptop to obtain three military absentee ballots using fake names and Social Security numbers, according to a criminal complaint. She sent the ballots to Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, an election conspiracy theorist, two weeks before the state’s gubernatorial and legislative elections.

rtxn,

she was acting as a whistleblower

Genius. If I’m ever prosecuted for murder, my defense will be that I was making a point about the public safety and the ease of breaking and entering with a knife.

gregorum,

When the punishment is a fine, it’s only a crime if you’re poor.

OccamsRazer,

It’s not clear from the article if this supports my political bias or not, so I don’t have much to say about it.

greentreerainfire,

I was curious. I did not find any specific listing fo le her, however since she sent the ballots to a Republican official who had been making claims of voter fraud (and is the person that reported the incident) I’m guessing she is republican leaning.

xmunk,

I know this might be controversial, but people fraudulently stealing absentee ballots should be punished regardless of what their political leaning is. I know, I’m so brave.

AA5B,

Who’s saying otherwise? Of course anyone committing election fraud needs to be brought to justice.

However it’s interesting that so many of the criminals come from one side of the spectrum, and it’s the side with wild accusations of fraud.

OccamsRazer,

Yep. Even if she is telling the truth about her motives and if she uncovered true election fraud, she cant break the law to obtain that evidence.

aphlamingphoenix,

Can we please call this the “Tina Peters Defense”?

UncleLuck,

Might be the most level-headed comment I’ve read on this hellscape.

OccamsRazer,

Everyone’s doing it to some extent, whether they want to admit it or not. I TRY not to let my bias influence my impression of events, but it definitely has some kind of impact.

UncleLuck,

Can’t wait for November to laugh at all the crying libturd memes.

Nation

treefrog,

Why stay if it’s a hellscape?

xmunk,

Because they’re desperate to be seen to the point of spewing negativity… same as most trolls really. Alternatively, they might be delusional enough to actually believe their bullshit.

Trolls gonna troll - look at their post history.

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