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

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

But the decide rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve at the 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 circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election which 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 other battleground states.

McKee, who was from Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale but 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 said that she was grieving over the loss of her mom and had no intent to affect the end result of the election.

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

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 before early ballots were mailed to voters.

Assistant Legal professional Common Todd Lawson played 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 ballot.

“The only strategy to prevent voter fraud is to bodily go in and punch a poll,” 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 means to ensure a fair election.

“And I don’t believe that this was a good election,” she continued. “I do consider 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 related violations of voting another person’s poll, and stated nobody obtained jail time in those cases. He mentioned agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would raise constitutional issues of equity.

“Simply said, over a long period of time, in voluminous instances, 67 circumstances, no person on this state for comparable circumstances, in related context ... no one acquired jail time,” Henze said. “The court docket didn’t impose jail time at all.”

But Lawson said jail time was necessary as a result of the type of case has modified. While in years past, most instances involved people voting in two states because they either lived in or had property in both states, in the 2020 election folks had purchased into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson informed the decide. “And essentially what we’re seeing right here is someone who says ‘Nicely, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s an enormous problem and I’m just going to slip in beneath 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 feel the angle you hear within the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the other instances.”

LaBianca stated that whereas she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she informed the investigator what she wanted: 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 called for, the courtroom may order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “However the report here doesn't show that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it could be for somebody just like the defendant to attack the legitimacy of our free elections without any proof, besides your individual fraud, such statements are not unlawful so far as I do know,” the choose continued.