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

PHOENIX (AP) — A decide in Phoenix on Friday sentenced a lady o two years of felony probation, fines and community service for voting her dead mother’s poll in Arizona within 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 maintain those committing voter fraud accountable.

The case in opposition to Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is considered one of only a handful of voter fraud cases from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to charges, regardless of 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 but now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court Decide Margaret LaBianca before the judge handed down her sentence. McKee mentioned that she was grieving over the lack of her mom and had no intent to influence the outcome of the election.

“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee advised LaBianca. “I don’t wish to make the excuse for my habits. What I did was unsuitable and I’m prepared to simply accept the implications handed down by the court.”

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

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

“The only technique to forestall voter fraud is to bodily go in and punch a ballot,” McKee advised 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 approach to ensure a fair election.

“And I don’t believe that this was a fair election,” she continued. “I do imagine there was lots of voter fraud.”

Tom Henze, McKee’s attorney, pointed to dozens of circumstances of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the previous decade, many for similar violations of voting another person’s poll, and mentioned no one obtained jail time in those cases. He mentioned agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional issues of equity.

“Merely stated, over a protracted time period, in voluminous circumstances, 67 circumstances, no person on this state for related circumstances, in comparable context ... no one got jail time,” Henze mentioned. “The court docket didn’t impose jail time at all.”

However Lawson said jail time was essential because the type of case has changed. While in years previous, most cases involved folks voting in two states as a result of they both lived in or had property in both states, within the 2020 election folks had purchased into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson instructed the judge. “And basically what we’re seeing right here is someone who says ‘Well, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s a giant problem and I’m simply going to slip in underneath 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 mentioned. “And I think the attitude you hear within the interview is the perspective that differentiates this case from the other instances.”

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

“And if there were evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence may be called for, the courtroom may order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “However the report right here does not present that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it could be for somebody just like the defendant to assault the legitimacy of our free elections with none evidence, besides your individual fraud, such statements aren't unlawful so far as I do know,” the decide continued.