Lady avoids jail for voting dead mom’s ballot in Arizona

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

However 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 maintain these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case against Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one in all just a handful of voter fraud circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election which have led to fees, despite widespread perception among 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 Judge Margaret LaBianca before the decide handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the loss of her mother and had no intent to influence the outcome of the election.

“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee told LaBianca. “I don’t need to make the excuse for my habits. What I did was mistaken and I’m prepared to accept the results handed down by the court docket.”

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

Assistant Legal professional Normal Todd Lawson performed a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator together with his workplace the place she mentioned there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s poll.

“The one option to stop voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot,” McKee advised the investigator. “I mean, voter fraud is going to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for positive. I imply, 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 consider there was plenty of voter fraud.”

Tom Henze, McKee’s legal professional, pointed to dozens of instances of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the previous decade, many for related violations of voting someone else’s ballot, and said no one received jail time in those circumstances. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional problems with equity.

“Merely stated, over an extended time frame, in voluminous circumstances, 67 circumstances, nobody in this state for comparable circumstances, in comparable context ... nobody obtained jail time,” Henze mentioned. “The court docket didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

However Lawson mentioned jail time was important because the type of case has changed. Whereas in years past, most circumstances involved folks voting in two states as a result of they both lived in or had property in each states, within the 2020 election individuals had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson told the judge. “And essentially what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Nicely, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s a giant problem and I’m just 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 stated. “And I believe the angle you hear in the interview is the perspective that differentiates this case from the opposite instances.”

LaBianca said that whereas she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she told the investigator what she wished: 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 referred to as for, the court would possibly order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “However the file right here doesn't present that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it may be for someone just like the defendant to assault the legitimacy of our free elections without any evidence, except your personal fraud, such statements should not illegal so far as I know,” the choose continued.