Prosecutor tells jury former Milwaukee official who requested fake ballots was no whistleblower

By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A prosecutor is urging jurors to find a former Milwaukee elections official who requested fake ballots guilty of misconduct, rejecting her stance that she was acting as a whistleblower. Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal tells jurors during closing arguments in Kimberly Zapata’s trial Wednesday that whistleblowers aren’t allowed to break the law and Zapata could have chosen legitimate ways to draw attention to flaws in the state’s election system. A criminal complaint says Zapata used fake names to request military ballots leading up to the November 2022 election. She has argued that she was trying to expose loopholes in the election system.