Woman avoids jail for voting lifeless mom’s poll in Arizona

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

However the decide 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 hold those committing voter fraud accountable.

The case in opposition to Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one in every of only a handful of voter fraud instances from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to expenses, 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 however now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court docket Decide Margaret LaBianca before the choose handed down her sentence. McKee said that she was grieving over the loss of her mom and had no intent to impression the outcome of the election.

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

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

Assistant Legal professional Common Todd Lawson performed a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator with his workplace where she stated there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mother’s poll.

“The one approach to forestall voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot,” McKee told the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud goes to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I imply, there’s no means to make sure a fair election.

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

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

“Merely stated, over a protracted time frame, in voluminous circumstances, 67 cases, nobody on this state for comparable cases, in similar context ... nobody acquired jail time,” Henze stated. “The court didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

However Lawson stated jail time was essential as a result of the type of case has changed. While in years previous, most circumstances concerned people voting in two states because 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 hearing is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson told the judge. “And essentially what we’re seeing right here is someone who says ‘Properly, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s an enormous downside and I’m simply going to slip in beneath 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 in any respect,” he said. “And I think the attitude you hear in the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the opposite circumstances.”

LaBianca mentioned that while she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she informed the investigator what she needed: going after individuals who committed voter fraud.

“And if there have been evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence could also be known as for, the courtroom would possibly order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “But the record right here doesn't show that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it might be for somebody just like the defendant to assault the legitimacy of our free elections without any proof, besides your own fraud, such statements should not illegal as far as I know,” the decide continued.