(The Center Square) – There are felony voter fraud charges for a woman who used to work for the Milwaukee Police Department.
Prosecutors filed charges against 45-year-old Marcey Patterson. Investigators say she voted in 12 city elections between 2018 and April 2025, despite the fact that she hasn’t lived in Milwaukee since 2018.
Investigators say Patterson filled out a new residency form in June that showed she moved to Glendale in 2018, and then moved to Brown Deer in March 2024.
“These forms, filled out and submitted by Patterson, established that for the entirety of her employment at MPD she did not (reside) within the City of Milwaukee,” prosecutors said in their charging complaint.
Patterson served as Milwaukee’s Police Community Relations Engagement and Recruitment Director from 2022 until she resigned last month.
Prosecutors say she listed both her house in Glendale, then her house in Brown Deer as her permanent residence, but also claimed that she stayed with her mother at her Milwaukee home from time to time.
While Patterson is facing voter fraud charges, she may also face charges for collecting Milwaukee’s city resident pay bump.
City workers who live in Milwaukee are eligible for a 3% bonus. Prosecutors say Patterson collected that bonus for years, totally more than $8,000.
The charging documents show that Patterson believed she qualified for the bonus because she lived within 15 miles of Milwaukee’s border. The mayor’s office, however, said there is no 15-mile exemption.
Patterson is the first person in Milwaukee to be charged with voter fraud since the city’s former Deputy Election Director Kimberly Zapata was charged with sending fake ballots to a state representative back in 2022. Zapata was convicted last year and sentenced to a year of probation.
Patterson could be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted.
