Girl avoids jail for voting dead mom’s poll in Arizona

PHOENIX (AP) — A choose in Phoenix on Friday sentenced a lady o two years of felony probation, fines and group service for voting her dead mom’s ballot in Arizona in the 2020 general election.

But the judge rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve not less than 30 days in jail as a result of she lied to investigators and demanded that they maintain those committing voter fraud accountable.

The case against Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one in all just a handful of voter fraud cases from Arizona’s 2020 election which have led to costs, regardless of widespread belief among many supporters of former President Donald Trump that there was widespread voter fraud that led to his loss in Arizona and different battleground states.

McKee, who was from Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale but now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court docket Decide Margaret LaBianca before the choose handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the loss of her mom and had no intent to influence the outcome of the election.

“Your Honor, I want to apologize,” McKee instructed LaBianca. “I don’t need to make the excuse for my behavior. What I did was fallacious and I’m ready to accept the implications handed down by the court docket.”

Both McKee and her mother, Mary Arendt, had been registered Republicans, although she was not requested if she voted for Trump. Arendt died on Oct. 5, 2020, two days earlier than early ballots were mailed to voters.

Assistant Lawyer Basic Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator together with his workplace where she stated there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mother’s ballot.

“The only technique to stop voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a poll,” McKee instructed the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud goes to be prevalent as long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I imply, there’s no method to ensure a good election.

“And I don’t consider that this was a good election,” she continued. “I do believe there was lots of voter fraud.”

Tom Henze, McKee’s lawyer, pointed to dozens of instances of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the past decade, many for comparable violations of voting another person’s poll, and stated no one got jail time in those cases. He stated agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would raise constitutional issues of equity.

“Simply said, over a long period of time, in voluminous circumstances, 67 cases, no one on this state for similar cases, in similar context ... no person obtained jail time,” Henze stated. “The courtroom didn’t impose jail time at all.”

However Lawson said jail time was important because the type of case has modified. While in years past, most cases involved people voting in two states because they either lived in or had property in each states, in the 2020 election folks had purchased into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson advised the decide. “And primarily what we’re seeing here is somebody who says ‘Effectively, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s a giant drawback and I’m simply going to slip in below the radar. And I’m going to do it because all people else is doing it and I can get away with it.’

“I don’t subscribe to that at all,” he mentioned. “And I think the angle you hear in the interview is the angle that differentiates this case from the opposite circumstances.”

LaBianca mentioned that whereas she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she advised the investigator what she wished: going after individuals who committed voter fraud.

“And if there were evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence could also be called for, the court docket may order jail time,” LaBianca said. “However the file here does not show that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it may be for someone like the defendant to attack the legitimacy of our free elections with none proof, besides your own fraud, such statements will not be unlawful as far as I know,” the choose continued.