{"id":9594,"date":"2024-03-19T22:44:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T23:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=9594"},"modified":"2024-03-20T00:01:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T00:01:57","slug":"rep-janel-brandtjen-unsure-of-defense-in-milwaukee-military-ballot-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=9594","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Janel Brandtjen Unsure of Defense in Milwaukee Military Ballot Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/brandtjen-unsure-of-defense-in-milwaukee-military-ballot-trial\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

(The Center Square) \u2013 The former Milwaukee election manager who sent three fake military ballots to a state lawmaker back in 2022 is claiming to be a whistleblower, but the lawmaker who got those ballots isn\u2019t sure.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Zapata\u2019s trial began this week. She\u2019s the former Milwaukee Election Commission supervisor charged with official misconduct after she mailed three military ballots to state Rep. Janel Brandtjen ahead of the 2022 election.<\/p>\n

Zapata\u2019s lawyers said she is \u201cpolitical whistleblower\u201d who simply wanted to ensure a \u201cfair and secure\u201d election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never met or known Kim Zapata. Her case makes it abundantly clear that the online WISvote system allows anyone, under indefinitely-confined, overseas or military ballots to request and receive a ballot, without security. In addition, the system allows ballot requests with a VPN, meaning the persons who request a ballot may never be known,\u201d Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, told The Center Square. \u201cIf Ms. Zapata had wanted to point out a concern in the election process, she could have anonymously picked up the phone rather than put her job and her reputation at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandtjen has been one of the loudest critics of Wisconsin\u2019s electoral system.<\/p>\n

She led the legislative investigation in 2021 into the lingering questions about the 2020 presidential election in the state. Her focus on possible election fraud eventually led to her falling out with top Republican leaders.<\/p>\n

Brandtjen continues to be critical of how the Republican-controlled legislature has not closed the military ballot loophole that Zapata is accused of using to send Brandtjen those three ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither the legislature, governor, Republican or Democrat parties have addressed the fact that military ballots requests are not being confirmed which is required by law,\u201d Brandtjen said. \u201cAnd the online WISvote System allows anyone to request and send some types of ballots without confirmed identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zapata\u2019s trail is expected to take the rest of the week, and reports suggest she won\u2019t call any witnesses in her own defense.<\/p>\n

Brandtjen said she\u2019s not sure what to make of Zapata\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot speak to the intent of Kim Zapata since I have never spoken to her. It was my report to the Waukesha County Sheriff\u2019s Department that asked for an investigation of who requested the ballots, since one of those ballots had my last name attached. I was never contacted by WEC or any investigators,\u201d she said. \u201cIf Kim Zapata had used a VPN, and not come forward, I would have been under suspicion of creating my own ballot requests, which I never could have disproved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/brandtjen-unsure-of-defense-in-milwaukee-military-ballot-trial\/ (The Center Square) \u2013 The former Milwaukee election manager…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":9596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9597,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9594\/revisions\/9597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}