Girl avoids jail for voting dead mother’s ballot in Arizona

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

But the decide rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve not less than 30 days in jail because 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 only a handful of voter fraud cases from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to prices, 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 however now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court docket Choose 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 influence the end result of the election.

“Your Honor, I want to apologize,” McKee told LaBianca. “I don’t wish to make the excuse for my conduct. What I did was incorrect and I’m prepared to just accept the results handed down by the courtroom.”

Each McKee and her mother, Mary Arendt, have been 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 Legal professional General Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator with his office the place she mentioned there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s poll.

“The only approach to prevent voter fraud is to bodily go in and punch a ballot,” McKee instructed the investigator. “I mean, voter fraud is going to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for certain. I imply, there’s no way to ensure a good election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s legal professional, pointed to dozens of cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the previous decade, many for related violations of voting someone else’s ballot, and stated nobody acquired jail time in those cases. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional issues of equity.

“Simply acknowledged, over a protracted time frame, in voluminous instances, 67 cases, nobody on this state for similar circumstances, in comparable context ... no one got jail time,” Henze stated. “The court docket didn’t impose jail time at all.”

But Lawson said jail time was important because the kind of case has modified. Whereas in years past, most circumstances involved people voting in two states because they either lived in or had property in both states, in 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 decide. “And basically what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Properly, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s a giant problem and I’m simply going to slide in below 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 said. “And I think the perspective you hear within the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the other instances.”

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

“And if there have been proof that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence could also be referred to as for, the court may order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “But the document here doesn't show that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it could be for somebody like the defendant to assault the legitimacy of our free elections without any evidence, besides your own fraud, such statements are not illegal so far as I know,” the judge continued.