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

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

However the decide rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve no less than 30 days in jail because she lied to investigators and demanded that they hold those committing voter fraud accountable.

The case towards Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one in all only a handful of voter fraud circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election which have led to fees, 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 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 earlier than the judge handed down her sentence. McKee mentioned that she was grieving over the loss of her mother and had no intent to affect the end result of the election.

“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee instructed LaBianca. “I don’t want to make the excuse for my habits. What I did was fallacious and I’m prepared to accept the consequences handed down by the courtroom.”

Each McKee and her mother, Mary Arendt, were registered Republicans, though 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 Normal Todd Lawson performed a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator along with his office the place she stated there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s poll.

“The only approach to forestall voter fraud is to bodily go in and punch a poll,” McKee instructed the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud is going to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for positive. I mean, there’s no manner to make sure a fair election.

“And I don’t consider that this was a fair election,” she continued. “I do believe there was a number 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 comparable violations of voting another person’s poll, and said no one bought jail time in these instances. He mentioned agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional problems with equity.

“Merely said, over a protracted time period, in voluminous circumstances, 67 cases, no one on this state for similar cases, in comparable context ... nobody obtained jail time,” Henze mentioned. “The courtroom didn’t impose jail time at all.”

However Lawson mentioned jail time was vital because the type of case has changed. While in years past, most instances concerned people voting in two states as a result of they either lived in or had property in both states, within the 2020 election folks had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson advised the choose. “And essentially what we’re seeing here is somebody who says ‘Effectively, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s an enormous downside and I’m simply going to slip in beneath 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 in any respect,” he stated. “And I think the perspective you hear within the interview is the angle that differentiates this case from the other circumstances.”

LaBianca said that while she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she instructed the investigator what she wished: going after people who committed 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 might order jail time,” LaBianca said. “However the file right here doesn't present that this crime is on the rise.

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