Milwaukee City Wire

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson (D) has moved to fire the city’s deputy elections director after she illegally sent three military ballots to the home of State Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Milwaukee) under fictitious names as part of a plan to expose flaws in the state’s election systems.

Over time, Brandtjen turned the ballots over to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office.

“I will not accept, I will not tolerate and I certainly will not defend any misrepresentation by a city official involved in elections,” Johnson posted on Twitter Nov. 3, after announcing Kimberly Zapata had been relieved of her duties. “It does not matter that this might have been an effort to expose a vulnerability that state law created.”

According to the Washington Post, Zapata now also faces the possibility of being criminally charged, with officials adding that it remains to be seen if this event would prompt them to change expectations for military ballots. The incident marks the second major election-based crime trial in the state this year after Henry Wait was earlier charged with illegally ordering absentee ballots in Racine.

With Wisconsin being one of the few states in the country that allows military personnel to receive an absentee ballot without registering to vote, Zapata is reported to have ordered the ballots in question through a state website without verification of residency. Ultimately, she did not utilize any resources or information that is for election officials only and not available to the public.

The ballots sent to Brandtjen’s home in suburban Milwaukee were under the names Holly Adams, Holly Brandtjen and Holly Jones, all of whom a subsequent investigation has found probably do not exist.