Kimberly Zapata, a former Wisconsin election official, was found guilty of
election fraud for illegally sending three absentee ballots to a
Republican legislator to prove a point about vulnerabilities in the
system.

Zapata claimed she did this because the legislator had raised concerns
about voter fraud, but wanted to show her a real vulnerability.

However, prosecutors argued Zapata broke the law instead of raising issues
through proper channels.

�This has every appearance of being an egregious and blatant violation of
trust,� Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. �I was stunned, absolutely
stunned, to hear the very serious allegations against her.�

While no illegal votes were cast, the incident demonstrated how easy it
could be to commit fraud given Zapata�s access and knowledge as an
election official.

It also undermined Democratic claims that the system is secure, as even an
insider was able to exploit loopholes through criminal acts.

�She is the most vocal election fraud politician that I know of, and I
thought that maybe this would make her stop and think and redirect her
focus away from these outrageous conspiracy theories to something that�s
actually real,� Zapata said.

�I did not think it through,� she added . �I didn�t have some manipulative
plan.�

Zapata�s actions backfired and proved the opposite of what she intended to
show through an ill-advised scheme.

�The appropriate way to raise a concern is to bring forth information,
it�s not to commit a crime,� Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal
said.

�If Ms. Zapata felt this information needed to be brought to light, there
was multiple, legitimate avenues she could have taken. She chose instead
to take the avenue of breaking the law.�

�This was not acting as a guardian of our elections, a guardian of our
democracy,� Westphal added. �This was her deserting her duty to protect
and secure our elections.�

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/election-official-found-guilty-of-
generating-fake-names-to-request-and-mail-absentee-ballots/ar-BB1loHCg