Lady avoids jail for voting lifeless mother’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 ballot in Arizona in the 2020 basic election.

However the judge rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve not less than 30 days in jail as a result of she lied to investigators and demanded that they hold these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case against Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one of only a handful of voter fraud cases from Arizona’s 2020 election which have led to prices, 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 docket Decide Margaret LaBianca earlier than the choose handed down her sentence. McKee said that she was grieving over the loss of her mother and had no intent to impact the end result of the election.

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

Each McKee and her mom, Mary Arendt, had been registered Republicans, though 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 played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator along with his workplace where she mentioned there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mother’s ballot.

“The only solution 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 mean, there’s no way to make sure a good election.

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

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

“Merely stated, over a protracted period of time, in voluminous cases, 67 cases, nobody on this state for related cases, in related context ... no one got jail time,” Henze said. “The courtroom didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

However Lawson stated jail time was important because the kind of case has changed. While in years past, most instances concerned folks voting in two states because they either lived in or had property in both states, in the 2020 election individuals had purchased into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson advised the choose. “And essentially what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Effectively, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s a big drawback and I’m just going to slip in under the radar. And I’m going to do it as a result of 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 feel the perspective you hear in the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the opposite instances.”

LaBianca mentioned that while she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she instructed the investigator what she needed: going after people 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 court docket would possibly order jail time,” LaBianca mentioned. “But the record right here doesn't present 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 with none proof, except your own fraud, such statements aren't unlawful so far as I do know,” the decide continued.