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

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge in Phoenix on Friday sentenced a woman o two years of felony probation, fines and neighborhood service for voting her dead mom’s poll in Arizona in the 2020 general 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 these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case in opposition to Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is certainly one of only a handful of voter fraud circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election that 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 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 Choose Margaret LaBianca before the decide handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the loss of her mother and had no intent to influence the outcome of the election.

“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee informed LaBianca. “I don’t need to make the excuse for my conduct. What I did was wrong and I’m ready to accept the consequences handed down by the courtroom.”

Both 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 had been mailed to voters.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator together with his office where she stated there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mother’s poll.

“The only technique to stop voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a poll,” McKee advised the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud goes to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for positive. I imply, there’s no means to make sure a fair election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s attorney, 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 stated no one obtained jail time in those cases. He mentioned agreeing with Lawson that McKee ought to do 30 days jail time would raise constitutional problems with equity.

“Merely acknowledged, over a long time frame, in voluminous cases, 67 cases, nobody on this state for comparable cases, in comparable context ... nobody received jail time,” Henze said. “The courtroom didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

However Lawson stated jail time was vital as a result of the kind of case has changed. Whereas in years previous, most circumstances involved individuals voting in two states as a result of they either lived in or had property in each states, in the 2020 election people had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re hearing is voter fraud is out there,” Lawson informed the judge. “And essentially what we’re seeing right here is somebody who says ‘Properly, I’m going to commit voter fraud as a result of it’s a giant drawback and I’m simply going to slip in below 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 at all,” he stated. “And I feel the attitude you hear in the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the opposite cases.”

LaBianca stated that while 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 evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence could also be referred to as for, the court would possibly order jail time,” LaBianca mentioned. “However the record here does not present that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it may be for someone like the defendant to attack the legitimacy of our free elections without any evidence, besides your own fraud, such statements will not be illegal as far as I know,” the judge continued.