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

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

But the choose rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve at least 30 days in jail as a result of she lied to investigators and demanded that they hold these committing voter fraud accountable.

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

McKee, who was from Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale but now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Courtroom Decide Margaret LaBianca before the judge handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the loss of her mother and had no intent to impression the end result of the election.

“Your Honor, I wish to apologize,” McKee instructed LaBianca. “I don’t wish to make the excuse for my behavior. What I did was unsuitable and I’m prepared to accept the consequences handed down by the court docket.”

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

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

“The only solution to forestall voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a poll,” McKee advised the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud goes to be prevalent as long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I mean, there’s no manner to make sure a good election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s attorney, pointed to dozens of cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the past decade, many for related violations of voting another person’s poll, and mentioned nobody got jail time in these cases. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would raise constitutional issues of fairness.

“Merely acknowledged, over a protracted time frame, in voluminous instances, 67 circumstances, no one on this state for comparable cases, in comparable context ... nobody acquired jail time,” Henze said. “The court didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

But Lawson mentioned jail time was vital as a result of the kind of case has changed. While in years past, most cases concerned individuals voting in two states as a result of they both lived in or had property in each states, in the 2020 election folks had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson informed the choose. “And primarily 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 downside and I’m just 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 said. “And I feel the angle you hear within the interview is the angle that differentiates this case from the opposite cases.”

LaBianca stated that whereas she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she informed 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 could also be known as for, the court might order jail time,” LaBianca said. “However the record 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 evidence, except your personal fraud, such statements are not unlawful so far as I do know,” the judge continued.