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

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.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
    10·
    6 months ago

    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@lemmy.world
      3·
      6 months ago

      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.