Girl avoids jail for voting useless mother’s poll 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 dead mother’s poll in Arizona within the 2020 general election.

However the decide rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve at the least 30 days in jail because she lied to investigators and demanded that they maintain these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case towards 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, regardless of widespread belief 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 however now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Courtroom Judge Margaret LaBianca earlier than the decide handed down her sentence. McKee mentioned that she was grieving over the lack of her mother and had no intent to influence the outcome of the election.

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

Each McKee and her mom, 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 Legal professional Basic Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator together with his office the place she stated there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s ballot.

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

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s lawyer, pointed to dozens of instances of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the previous decade, many for comparable violations of voting another person’s poll, and mentioned no one bought jail time in these instances. He stated agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional problems with fairness.

“Merely said, over a long time frame, in voluminous cases, 67 cases, no person on this state for related circumstances, in related context ... nobody obtained jail time,” Henze stated. “The court didn’t impose jail time at all.”

However Lawson mentioned jail time was necessary because the type of case has modified. While in years previous, most cases concerned folks voting in two states as a result of they both 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 told the choose. “And essentially what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Well, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s an enormous downside and I’m simply going to slip 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 in any respect,” he stated. “And I believe the angle you hear in the interview is the angle that differentiates this case from the other instances.”

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

“And if there were evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence could also be referred to as for, the courtroom might order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “However the document here does not 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, besides your personal fraud, such statements will not be illegal so far as I do know,” the choose continued.