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 group service for voting her useless mom’s ballot in Arizona within the 2020 common election.

However the choose rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve no less than 30 days in jail as a result of she lied to investigators and demanded that they maintain those committing voter fraud accountable.

The case towards Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is certainly one of just a handful of voter fraud circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to costs, regardless of 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 Courtroom 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 impression the end result of the election.

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

Each McKee and her mom, Mary Arendt, were registered Republicans, though 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 Attorney Basic Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator with his workplace where she mentioned there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s poll.

“The one way to stop voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot,” McKee informed the investigator. “I mean, voter fraud goes to be prevalent as long as there’s mail-in voting, for positive. I mean, there’s no manner to ensure a good election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s lawyer, pointed to dozens of cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the past decade, many for comparable violations of voting another person’s ballot, and said nobody obtained jail time in these circumstances. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would increase constitutional problems with fairness.

“Merely said, over a long time frame, in voluminous instances, 67 cases, nobody on this state for comparable instances, in related context ... no person received jail time,” Henze mentioned. “The court didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

However Lawson said jail time was vital as a result of the type of case has modified. Whereas in years previous, most instances concerned individuals voting in two states as a result of they either 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 informed the judge. “And basically what we’re seeing here is somebody who says ‘Nicely, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s a big drawback and I’m just going to slide in under the radar. And I’m going to do it as a result of everybody else is doing it and I can get away with it.’

“I don’t subscribe to that in any respect,” he stated. “And I feel the attitude you hear within the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the opposite instances.”

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

“And if there were proof that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence could also be called for, the court may order jail time,” LaBianca mentioned. “However the report right here doesn't present that this crime is on the rise.

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