Back in the 2020 election something very strange happened. Joe Biden received almost 100% of the military vote in several states. That was suspicious since Republicans always wins the vast majority of the military vote and now we know why. It’s commonly known as voter fraud. ”the former deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, was also found guilty of misconduct in public office. She could have been requesting military ballots under fake names and used them to vote for Joe Biden. We don’t know.
Zapata claimed that she was just trying to expose how easily the military votes could be manipulated in Wisconsin by sending three military ballots to the home of Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen. No one was buying what she was selling but there was no lack of Democrats who tried to give support to Zapata. Zapata was in court this week and the jury was out for just five hours at which time Zapata was found guilty on all charges, including felonies.
During opening statements, prosecutors said Zapata committed fraud and violated the public’s trust. However, her defense attorney said she acted as a “whistleblower.”
As deputy director, Zapata was in charge of early voting, absentee voting and voter registration for the city of Milwaukee. She was fired by the city and charged with the crimes in November 2022.
Her sentencing will be held May 2. She faces up to three-and-a-half years in prison, a $10,000 fine for the felony charge and another six months in prison for each of the election fraud charges, which carry fines of up to $1,000.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELThe case comes as scrutiny around election integrity is on the forefront of many voters’ minds going into the 2024 elections, as the presidential race is shaping up to be a rematch of the 2020 election.
It’s also a case that Atiba Ellis, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said was “rare, bordering on unheard of.”
The fake military ballots were requested through the My Vote Wisconsin website from Zapata’s work laptop on the morning of Oct. 25, 2022, and were mailed by clerks in Menomonee Falls, Shorewood and South Milwaukee. Zapata used her municipal login credentials to access a private Wisconsin database to find Brandtjen’s home address.
The ballots Brandtjen received at her home address were addressed to Holly Brandtjen, Holly Jones and Holly Adams. When the ballots arrived at her home, the lawmaker contacted authorities and the media.
Following news of the incident, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said there are multiple checks in place to ensure fraudulent military absentee ballots are not counted.
Ellis said:
“Ordinarily, election administrators who see flaws in systems raise those flaws and those become the object of legislation. But for an election administrator to undertake the act of requesting a fake ballot in order to prove that election fraud can happen is simply unheard of.”
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson added:
“At the time of Zapata’s removal from the Milwaukee’s Election Commission, I said it does not matter that this might have been an effort to expose a vulnerability that state law created. It does not matter 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 election results. Fundamentally, the actions were a violation of trust.”
