Nov. 4, 2022 US election coverage

A former Milwaukee election official who allegedly obtained military ballots for fake voters undermined the trust of the public, the state’s top election official said Friday.

The remarks came hours after charges were officially filed against Kimberly Zapata.

The former deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission was charged with one felony count of misconduct in public office and three misdemeanor counts of making false statements to obtain or vote through absentee ballots.

Administrator Meagan Wolfe, who heads the Wisconsin Elections Commission, emphasized the alleged actions would have no impact on voting in the midterm elections.

In an interview with prosecutors, the criminal complaint says, Zapata said she sent military voter absentee requests to municipal clerks using fabricated names “because she wanted to make a point that there is fraud in existence. She stated that it is not the conspiracy theories out there, but she wanted to bring the actual true fraud out.” 

It added: “Zapata stated that she felt overwhelmed due to the threats of violence the Election Commission was receiving, in addition to the constant daily harassment and accusations of lying and hiding things. She stated she wanted the truth to come out so that they could focus on the actual problems.” 

“We will litigate this in the courtroom, not the media,” Zapata’s attorney Michael Maistelman told CNN.

Wolfe told reporters the system worked exactly as intended under state law and that she is confident the military ballots would have been caught before being counted.

In this case, the ballots were reported by the state representative they were allegedly sent to. However, if that had not happened, “your local election official has the tools and ability to follow up with somebody if something looks unusual,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe added that because military ballots make up such a small portion of total votes and are part of some federal monitoring requirements, they’re watched very closely.