Woman avoids jail for voting lifeless mother’s poll in Arizona

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

However the decide rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve at least 30 days in jail because she lied to investigators and demanded that they hold these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case in opposition to Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is certainly one of only a handful of voter fraud instances from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to costs, regardless of widespread belief amongst 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 judge handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the lack of her mother and had no intent to impression the end result of the election.

“Your Honor, I wish to apologize,” McKee advised LaBianca. “I don’t wish to make the excuse for my behavior. What I did was improper and I’m ready to simply accept the results handed down by the court docket.”

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

Assistant Attorney Normal Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator along with his office where she said there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s ballot.

“The one technique to forestall voter fraud is to bodily go in and punch a ballot,” McKee told the investigator. “I mean, voter fraud goes to be prevalent as long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I imply, there’s no manner to make sure a good election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s attorney, pointed to dozens of cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the previous decade, many for comparable violations of voting someone else’s ballot, and stated no one obtained jail time in these instances. He mentioned agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional issues of equity.

“Merely said, over a protracted period of time, in voluminous cases, 67 circumstances, nobody on this state for similar cases, in related context ... no person acquired jail time,” Henze said. “The courtroom didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

But Lawson mentioned jail time was vital as a result of the type of case has modified. Whereas in years past, most cases involved people voting in two states as a result of they either lived in or had property in each states, within the 2020 election folks had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re hearing is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson instructed the judge. “And basically what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Nicely, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s an enormous drawback and I’m just going to slide in under the radar. And I’m going to do it as a result of everyone else is doing it and I can get away with it.’

“I don’t subscribe to that at all,” he stated. “And I feel the perspective you hear in the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the opposite circumstances.”

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

“And if there have been proof that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence may be referred to as for, the court docket may order jail time,” LaBianca said. “However the file right here doesn't present that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it might be for someone just like the defendant to assault the legitimacy of our free elections without any proof, besides your personal fraud, such statements are not illegal as far as I do know,” the judge continued.