MILWAUKEE (CN) — Former high-ranking Milwaukee elections official Kimberly Zapata urged a state appellate panel on Thursday to overturn her 2022 convictions for voter fraud and misconduct in public office, arguing she was actually a whistleblower.
A jury convicted Zapata, 49, in March 2024 of one felony count of misconduct in public office and three misdemeanor counts of making a false statement to obtain or vote an absentee ballot. A judge sentenced her to nine months in jail on the felony charge and ordered her to pay $3,000 in fines, but stayed the jail time for 12 months of probation and 120 hours of community service.
Zapata’s attorney Daniel Adams portrayed his client as a whistleblower, framing the act of requesting three military absentee ballots using three different names as an effort to draw attention away from election conspiracy theories and shine the spotlight instead on very real flaws in the absentee system.
On Thursday, Adams made the argument again before a three-judge panel of the Wisconsin Appeals Court and around 150 students of Rufus King International High School. The hearing took place on the stage of the school’s auditorium as part of a civic education program.
Adams focused on Zapata’s intent, suggesting that since Zapata herself never physically held the ballots — she had them delivered to a different address — she didn’t violate the law.
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