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

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

However the decide rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve not less than 30 days in jail because she lied to investigators and demanded that they maintain these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case against Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is one among just a handful of voter fraud circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election which have led to expenses, 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 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 decide handed down her sentence. McKee stated that she was grieving over the loss of her mother and had no intent to impression the outcome of the election.

“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee advised LaBianca. “I don’t wish to make the excuse for my conduct. What I did was mistaken and I’m ready to accept the consequences handed down by the court docket.”

Each McKee and her mom, Mary Arendt, were registered Republicans, although she was not asked if she voted for Trump. Arendt died on Oct. 5, 2020, two days earlier than early ballots have been mailed to voters.

Assistant Lawyer General Todd Lawson performed a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator with his office the place she mentioned there was rampant voter fraud and denied that she had signed and returned her mom’s poll.

“The one strategy to prevent voter fraud is to bodily go in and punch a ballot,” McKee advised the investigator. “I mean, voter fraud goes to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for positive. I imply, there’s no way to make sure a good election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s attorney, pointed to dozens of cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the previous decade, many for related violations of voting someone else’s poll, and stated no one acquired jail time in these circumstances. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would raise constitutional problems with equity.

“Simply stated, over a protracted period of time, in voluminous instances, 67 instances, no one on this state for comparable cases, in similar context ... nobody received jail time,” Henze mentioned. “The court didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

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

“What we’re listening to is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson told the decide. “And basically 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 big drawback and I’m just going to slip in underneath 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 stated. “And I believe the perspective you hear within the interview is the angle that differentiates this case from the other instances.”

LaBianca mentioned that while she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she informed the investigator what she needed: going after individuals who committed voter fraud.

“And if there were evidence that this crime was on the rise, and that heightened deterrence may be referred to as for, the courtroom would possibly order jail time,” LaBianca said. “But the record right here doesn't present that this crime is on the rise.

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