Girl avoids jail for voting lifeless mom’s ballot in Arizona

PHOENIX (AP) — A decide in Phoenix on Friday sentenced a girl o two years of felony probation, fines and neighborhood service for voting her useless mother’s poll in Arizona in the 2020 general election.

But the choose 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 maintain those committing voter fraud accountable.

The case in opposition to Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is considered one of just a handful of voter fraud cases from Arizona’s 2020 election which have led to costs, despite widespread perception among 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 Court docket Choose Margaret LaBianca earlier than the decide handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the loss of her mom and had no intent to impact the outcome of the election.

“Your Honor, I want to apologize,” McKee told LaBianca. “I don’t want to make the excuse for my behavior. What I did was incorrect and I’m prepared to just accept the results handed down by the courtroom.”

Each McKee and her mother, Mary Arendt, have 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 Attorney Normal Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator with his office where she said there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s ballot.

“The only technique to prevent voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a poll,” McKee told the investigator. “I mean, voter fraud is going to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for certain. I mean, there’s no way to make sure a fair election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s legal professional, 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 received jail time in these instances. He stated agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would raise constitutional problems with equity.

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

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

“What we’re hearing is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson advised the choose. “And essentially what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Properly, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s a giant downside and I’m simply going to slide in underneath 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 mentioned. “And I believe the angle you hear in the interview is the perspective that differentiates this case from the other cases.”

LaBianca stated that while she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she advised the investigator what she wished: 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 known as for, the courtroom might order jail time,” LaBianca stated. “However the report right here does not present that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it may be for somebody just like the defendant to attack the legitimacy of our free elections without any evidence, except your individual fraud, such statements are usually not illegal as far as I know,” the judge continued.