Zapata defense was she was a whistle blower regarding a flaw in the voting system. a witness for the prosecution summed it up as,
"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.”
“Ordinarily, election administrators who see flaws in systems raise those flaws and those become the object of legislation,” Ellis said. “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.”
"Kimberly Zapata, the former deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, was also found guilty of misconduct in public office, a felony,
after she admitted to using fake names to request military absentee ballots on her work laptop in 2022. Zapata then sent those ballots to the home of Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who was promoting false theories about election fraud.
Zapata, 47,
has been on trial in Milwaukee County since Monday. After deliberating for around five hours following closing arguments Wednesday morning, Zapata appeared quiet in court while Milwaukee County judge Ashley Kori read the decision of the jury.
A Milwaukee County jury found former election official Kimberly Zapata guilty of election fraud involving absentee ballots Wednesday afternoon.
www.wpr.org
Ellis, the law professor, said more cases like this are popping up across the nation following the 2020 election.
A report from The Associated Press found fewer than 475 potential instances of voter fraud out of more than 25 million votes cast in the 2020 election. Ellis said other errors in voting systems can usually be attributed to human error.
“These sorts of issues are always almost simple errors and there’s usually not a kind of intent,” Ellis said. “Most cases where voter fraud has been prosecuted has been usually by political operatives who are trying to make the point that there is a way to game the system.”
In Wisconsin, that includes Harry Wait,
who is now facing felony charges for requesting absentee ballots using Vos’ name and address without permission in 2022. At the time, he said he did so to show vulnerabilities in the state’s online voter portal system. Wait, who is a volunteer organizer in the recall effort against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, will appear in court in August for an evidentiary hearing.
Seems Zapata used bad judgement. In the end it was still voter fraud.