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

PHOENIX (AP) — A decide in Phoenix on Friday sentenced a woman o two years of felony probation, fines and neighborhood service for voting her dead mother’s poll in Arizona in the 2020 normal election.

However the choose rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve at the very 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 towards Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one in every of just a handful of voter fraud instances from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to expenses, despite widespread perception 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 however now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret LaBianca earlier than the choose handed down her sentence. McKee said that she was grieving over the lack of her mom and had no intent to impact the result of the election.

“Your Honor, I want to apologize,” McKee informed LaBianca. “I don’t want to make the excuse for my habits. What I did was improper and I’m prepared to just accept the consequences handed down by the court.”

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

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

“The only technique to prevent voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot,” McKee advised the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud goes to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I imply, there’s no way to make sure a fair election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s attorney, pointed to dozens of instances of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the past decade, many for related violations of voting someone else’s poll, and mentioned no one got jail time in these circumstances. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional issues of fairness.

“Merely stated, over a long time frame, in voluminous circumstances, 67 cases, no person in this state for comparable circumstances, in similar context ... nobody received jail time,” Henze stated. “The court docket didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

However Lawson stated jail time was necessary because the type of case has modified. Whereas in years previous, most cases concerned individuals voting in two states as a result of they either lived in or had property in both states, in the 2020 election people had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson informed the judge. “And primarily what we’re seeing right here is somebody who says ‘Nicely, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s a giant downside and I’m just going to slip in beneath the radar. And I’m going to do it as a result of everybody else is doing it and I can get away with it.’

“I don’t subscribe to that in any respect,” he stated. “And I believe the angle you hear in the interview is the perspective that differentiates this case from the other instances.”

LaBianca mentioned that while she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she advised the investigator what she needed: going after people who dedicated voter fraud.

“And if there have been evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence may be known as for, the court would possibly order jail time,” LaBianca mentioned. “However the document here does not present that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it could be for someone like the defendant to attack the legitimacy of our free elections without any proof, except your own fraud, such statements should not illegal so far as I know,” the decide continued.