{"id":2320362,"date":"2024-08-07T07:20:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T11:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-fake-holly-adams-exposes-flaws-in-wis-voter-rolls\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T07:29:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T11:29:20","slug":"the-fake-holly-adams-exposes-flaws-in-wis-voter-rolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-fake-holly-adams-exposes-flaws-in-wis-voter-rolls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fake &#8216;Holly Adams&#8217; Exposes Flaws In WI&#8217;s Voter Rolls"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-fake-holly-adams-exposes-flaws-in-wis-voter-rolls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2320362&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In October \u20632022, Kimberly Zapata, then deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, was implicated \u200din an election fraud scheme. She used a government laptop and\u200b fake identities to obtain\u2063 three military absentee ballots,\u2062 which were\u200d sent to the home of \u200cWisconsin state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, known for her efforts to ensure election\u200d integrity. Despite her conviction for misconduct and subsequent sentencing, issues surrounding voter \u2064registration were highlighted when Brandtjen discovered political mail addressed to one of the fake \u2062identities, &#8220;Holly Adams,&#8221; at her residence.<\/p>\n<p>Brandtjen&#8217;s investigation revealed that\u200c the fake names remained listed in the \u2063state&#8217;s voter registration system, prompting\u2062 concerns over the integrity and security of the electoral process. Zapata claimed she intended to \u2063expose vulnerabilities in the election system but her actions \u2064resulted in\u2062 criminal charges.\u2063 Criticism \u200dhas been directed at the Wisconsin Elections Commission and local \u2062clerks for not permanently removing the fraudulent names from their databases. They maintain that\u200b these inactive\u200b records help safeguard against voter fraud, intending to keep evidence of potential crimes. the incident\u2064 raised significant alarms about the reliability\u200d of Wisconsin&#8217;s election systems and\u200d has contributed to ongoing public\u2064 distrust in the electoral process.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/former-milwaukee-election-official-fined-sentenced-cd376bd2df01a4e49c7a6300e0385f8c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kimberly Zapata<\/a> held the No. 2 position at the <a href=\"https:\/\/city.milwaukee.gov\/election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Milwaukee Election Commission<\/a> in October 2022 when she used her government-issued laptop, fake names and phony Social Security numbers to obtain three military absentee ballots, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/kimberly-zapata-complaint-milwaukee-county.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criminal complaint<\/a>. The ballots &mdash; requested on the state&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/myvote.wi.gov\/en-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MyVote site<\/a> and issued in the names of Holly Adams, Holly Jones, and Holly Brandtjen &mdash; were mailed to the suburban Milwaukee address of state<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/2023\/legislators\/assembly\/2451\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Rep. Janel Brandtjen<\/a>, an election integrity warrior in the key battleground state.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nearly two years after Zapata pulled her illegal scheme, and three months after the elections official was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox6now.com\/news\/kimberly-zapata-ballot-fraud-case-sentence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sentenced<\/a> on a conviction of misconduct in office, Brandtjen said she&rsquo;s receiving mail (including political mailers) in the name of Holly Adams.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While sorting through her mail last week, Brandtjen told The Federalist on Tuesday, she was surprised to find a piece addressed to Holly Adams. The lawmaker added that no such individual resides at the family&rsquo;s suburban Milwaukee home, nor, to the best of her knowledge, ever has. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At first Brandtjen thought it was a &ldquo;sick joke.&rdquo; But it&rsquo;s no coincidence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With the assistance of individuals who purchased the state&rsquo;s voter list &mdash; at a bank-busting bill of $12,500 &mdash; Brandtjen said she was able to confirm that &ldquo;Holly Adams&rdquo; is voter ID# 701923079, still fake and still alive and well in the <a href=\"https:\/\/legis.wisconsin.gov\/assembly\/22\/brandtjen\/media\/dmhhertu\/wisconsin-elections-commission-21622.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WisVote system,<\/a> the state&rsquo;s voter registration database and election management system. So are are &ldquo;Holly Brandtjen&rdquo; (voter ID# 701923081) and &ldquo;Holly Jones&rdquo; ( voter ID # 701923080). The voter entries, viewed by The Federalist, show the phony names, without a voting history, have been inactivated. But they are being sold along with millions of other would-be and ostensibly won&rsquo;t be voters to anyone able to purchase the state&rsquo;s expensive voter list.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What does this say about the security of our elections? The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) and the three municipal clerks failed to remove these fake military identities even after the Milwaukee Deputy Clerk, Kim Zapata, was found guilty of election fraud,&rdquo; Brandtjen said Tuesday in a statement. The lawmaker referred to clerk&rsquo;s offices in South Milwaukee, Shorewood, and Menomonee Falls, from which the military absentee ballots were sent to the Brandtjen home just days before the 2022 midterm elections.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;There&rsquo;s a Huge Flaw Here&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>Zapata, who was in charge of Milwaukee&rsquo;s early and absentee voting and voter registration, claimed that she sent the ballots to Brandtjen to expose the security flaws in the state&rsquo;s election system. Zapata said she hoped the lawmaker, who doggedly led a state Assembly committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2021\/03\/11\/zuckerberg-grant-allowed-outsider-to-infiltrate-presidential-election-in-wisconsin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">investigating election law violations and irregularities<\/a> in the contentious 2020 election, would bring the weaknesses to light.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Zapata told police that &ldquo;she went to the MyVote website and fabricated three individuals who did not exist. She used those fabricated names to have military voter absentee requests sent to the municipal clerks in Shorewood, South Milwaukee, and Menomonee Falls. She then had the absentee ballots sent to&rdquo; Brandtjen.<\/p>\n<p>Zapata said she believed Brandtjen would draw attention to the fraud. She was right, and her correct hunch ended up costing the deputy clerk her job and a criminal record. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;She was a whistleblower, she was showing with the truth, with an action &mdash; an imperfect action, but a truthful action &mdash; what was going on,&rdquo; Daniel Adams, Zapata&rsquo;s attorney, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/news\/jury-former-milwaukee-election-official-guilty-election-fraud-zapata\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told the jury<\/a> at her trial.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a huge flaw here, and if people don&rsquo;t take it seriously, some nefarious person will do something bad with this flaw in the system,&rdquo; Adams said. &ldquo;She (Zapata) wanted to point that out.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Blatant Disregard&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>There remains a huge flaw in the system, Brandtjen and others say, despite assurances from the state&rsquo;s election regulator that there are multiple protections that would stop fraudulent absentee ballots from being counted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Brandtjen said the presence of the phony military voters in the WisVote system &ldquo;highlights a blatant disregard for maintaining an accurate voter registry.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Even though they are inactive and have no voting history, the system can be updated daily,&rdquo; she said, referring to the ability of local election clerks to activate and inactivate voters on the rolls. &ldquo;There is no plausible reason for these names to remain on the inactive list after being implicated in election fraud. This negligence fosters distrust in the system, and unfortunately, no one will be held accountable for this incompetence.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Riley Vetterkind explained that third-party groups regularly purchase voter roll data from WEC. That data include names and information of registered and eligible voters, as well as ineligible, unregistered voters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin&rsquo;s municipal clerks have the &ldquo;statutory authority&rdquo; to change a voter&rsquo;s registration status from active to inactive.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In this case the records in question were inactivated and flagged as ineligible by the local election officials,&rdquo; Vetterkind said in an email response to The Federalist. &ldquo;Ineligible records are not registered to vote, do not appear on pollbooks, and cannot cast a ballot in Wisconsin elections.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He went on to say that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-gop-to-test-support-for-ballot-drop-boxes-buckhead-cityhood-in-may-primary\/\" title=\"Georgia GOP to Test Support for Ballot Drop Boxes, Buckhead Cityhood in May Primary\">state law prohibits<\/a> the destruction of the voting records in the WisVote system. That&rsquo;s why clearly ineligible names like the fake Holly Adams remain on the list. Retaining ineligible voter records helps &ldquo;safeguard against voter fraud,&rdquo; the WEC official insists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The voter registration database is the means for election officials to track deaths; to track felons; to track people adjudicated incompetent; and to otherwise track any reason for ineligibility or fraudulent activity,&rdquo; Vetterkind said. &ldquo;If ineligible records are destroyed, election officials would lose a mechanism to verify these conditions.&rdquo; He added that the doctored names raising alarm bells with Brandtjen were &ldquo;intentionally preserved.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Permanently removing these voter records would be deleting evidence of the crime Rep. Brandtjen mentioned in her press release,&rdquo; he said, offering that ineligible records have been flagged so <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-campaign-files-lawsuit-to-overturn-fraudulent-election-in-georgia\/\" title=\"TRUMP CAMPAIGN Files Lawsuit to Overturn Fraudulent Election in Georgia\">local elections officials<\/a> can see them and reject them &ldquo;in the event someone should try to illegally use them in the future.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee Election Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/just-in-floyd-county-georgia-terminates-election-director-after-statewide-audit-discovers-uncounted-votes\/\" title=\"JUST IN: Floyd County, Georgia Terminates Election Director After Statewide Audit Discovers Uncounted Votes\">executive director<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.votebeat.org\/wisconsin\/2024\/05\/22\/milwaukee-election-paulina-gutierrez-turnover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paulina Gutierrez <\/a>confirmed the records have been inactivated and that she does not have access to them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Additionally, no activity can be executed under those records,&rdquo; she added in an email response to The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Gutierrez, who was named deputy elections chief after Zapata was fired, found herself suddenly tapped for the top post in the office <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/08\/shady-milwaukee-elections-chief-ousted-six-months-before-election-but-will-her-successor-be-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in May<\/a> after the city&rsquo;s Democrat mayor removed controversial director <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/08\/shady-milwaukee-elections-chief-ousted-six-months-before-election-but-will-her-successor-be-worse\/\">Claire Woodall<\/a>, citing &ldquo;internal&rdquo; issues. Woodall was at the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/08\/shady-milwaukee-elections-chief-ousted-six-months-before-election-but-will-her-successor-be-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">center of <\/a>Milwaukee&rsquo;s election integrity troubles in the 2020 election and the state&rsquo;s &ldquo;Zuckbucks&rdquo; scandal.<\/p>\n<h2>Draining Confidence<\/h2>\n<p>Elections officials and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson all agreed Zapata&rsquo;s actions were a &ldquo;violation of trust,&rdquo; eroding the public&rsquo;s already shaky confidence in free and fair elections. Yet Wisconsin&rsquo;s voter rolls are anything but pristine despite elections officials <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2023\/08\/08\/over-100000-voters-removed-from-rolls-as-part-of-routine-maintenance\/70545449007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bragging<\/a> last year that they had removed more than 100,000 out-of-date voter registrations. It&rsquo;s the obligatory state database sweep, but the deactivations come only after the voters haven&rsquo;t cast a ballot for four years and haven&rsquo;t returned mailers checking their registration status.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Military absentee ballots make up a fraction of the total vote count in Wisconsin elections &mdash; less than a tenth of a percent, Wisconsin Elections Commission officials <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/wisconsin-milwaukee-fraud-fb6b43754742915657da53b2040eb842\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> the Associated Press. But the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-hauls-in-over-50-million-at-palm-beach-fundraiser\/\" title=\"Trump raises more than  million at Palm Beach event\">hotly contested 2020 presidential election<\/a> in swing state Wisconsin was decided by some 20,000 votes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/election\/2020\/results\/state\/wisconsin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">less than a percentage point,<\/a> of the total, with Democrat Joe Biden claiming victory over Republican incumbent President Donald Trump.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Members of the military are not required to register to vote in the Badger State. They need only provide their name, address and date of birth to obtain an absentee ballot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Brandtjen said the Republican-controlled state legislature squandered the chance to investigate flaws in the WisVote system, failing to use its subpoena power to demand accountability for &ldquo;WEC&rsquo;s failure to implement a system that verifies military ballot requests and also complies with existing laws.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our agencies aren&rsquo;t able to cooperate to give voters the transparency and the confidence that these lists are being managed appropriately,&rdquo; the lawmaker said in an interview with The Federalist. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-throws-out-leftist-nevada-ags-phony-fake-electors-case\/\" title=\"Judge Throws Out Leftist Nevada AG&#039;s Phony &#039;Fake Electors&#039; Case\">senior elections correspondent<\/a> for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In October 2022, Kimberly Zapata was the second-in-command at the Milwaukee Election Commission when she allegedly used her government laptop, fictitious names, and counterfeit Social Security numbers to acquire three military absentee ballots, as detailed in a criminal complaint. These ballots were requested through Wisconsin&#8217;s MyVote website under the names Holly Adams, Holly Jones, and Holly Brandtjen and were sent to the suburban Milwaukee residence of state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who is known for advocating election integrity in this crucial battleground state. Nearly two years after Zapata&#8217;s illegal actions and three months following her sentencing for misconduct in office, Brandtjen reported receiving mail addressed to Holly Adams. While sorting through her mail last week, she expressed surprise at finding an item directed to that name since no one by that name lives at her home or has ever resided there.<\/p>\n<p>Initially thinking it might be a &#8220;sick joke,&#8221; Brandtjen later discovered it was not coincidental. With help from individuals who purchased Wisconsin\u2019s voter list for $12,500, she confirmed that &#8220;Holly Adams&#8221; is still listed as voter ID# 701923079 in the WisVote system\u2014the state&#8217;s voter registration database\u2014along with other fictitious names like &#8220;Holly Brandtjen&#8221; (voter ID# 701923081) and &#8220;Holly Jones&#8221; (voter ID # 701923080). Although these entries have been marked inactive and lack voting history according to The Federalist&#8217;s review of them, they remain available for purchase alongside millions of other potential voters.<\/p>\n<p>Brandtjen criticized this situation as indicative of serious flaws in election security: \u201cThe Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) and local clerks failed to eliminate these fraudulent military identities even after Kim Zapata was convicted of election fraud,\u201d she stated regarding clerks from South Milwaukee, Shorewood, and Menomonee Falls who had sent the ballots just before the 2022 midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>Zapata claimed that her intention behind sending those ballots was to highlight vulnerabilities within Wisconsin\u2019s electoral system. She believed that by exposing these weaknesses through action\u2014albeit flawed\u2014she would prompt attention from lawmakers like Brandtjen who had previously investigated election law violations during the contentious 2020 elections.<\/p>\n<p>Despite assurances from state officials about safeguards against fraudulent absentee ballots being counted during elections, concerns persist about systemic flaws highlighted by both Brandtjen and others involved. She pointed out how having fake military voters listed underscores a blatant neglect regarding accurate voter registration maintenance: \u201cThere\u2019s no valid reason for these names to stay on an inactive list after being linked with election fraud,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Riley Vetterkind explained that third-party groups frequently buy data on registered voters which includes both eligible individuals as well as those deemed unregistered or ineligible. Local municipal clerks hold authority over changing a voter&#8217;s status between active or inactive; however Vetterkind noted that while records can be flagged as ineligible due to various reasons\u2014including death or felony convictions\u2014they cannot be destroyed under state law because doing so would eliminate evidence necessary for verifying eligibility conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Paulina Gutierrez confirmed records are indeed marked inactive but emphasized they cannot be acted upon further under those identifiers. Following Zapata&#8217;s dismissal amid controversy surrounding electoral integrity issues during previous elections\u2014including allegations related to outside funding\u2014the public trust has been significantly undermined according officials including Mayor Cavalier Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>While military absentee votes represent only a small fraction of total votes cast\u2014less than one-tenth percent according WEC estimates\u2014the narrow margin by which Joe Biden won over Donald Trump during Wisconsin\u2019s pivotal presidential race underscores why such irregularities raise alarm bells among lawmakers like Brandtjen who feel legislative oversight could have better addressed existing vulnerabilities within systems meant ensure fair voting practices across their jurisdictions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2320363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-7.11.46-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32644,37409,32643,4124],"class_list":["post-2320362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-election-integrity","tag-holly-adams","tag-voter-rolls","tag-wisconsin"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-7.11.46-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2320362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2320363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2320362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2320362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2320362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}