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

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge in Phoenix on Friday sentenced a girl o two years of felony probation, fines and group service for voting her lifeless mom’s poll in Arizona in the 2020 basic election.

However the judge rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve no less than 30 days in jail because she lied to investigators and demanded that they hold these committing voter fraud accountable.

The case towards Tracey Kay McKee, 64, is certainly one of only a handful of voter fraud circumstances from Arizona’s 2020 election that have led to expenses, despite widespread belief 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 however now lives in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court Decide Margaret LaBianca before the decide handed down her sentence. McKee said that she was grieving over the lack of her mother and had no intent to influence the result of the election.

“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee informed LaBianca. “I don’t need to make the excuse for my habits. What I did was wrong and I’m prepared to just accept the results handed down by the court docket.”

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 have been mailed to voters.

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

“The only solution to forestall voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot,” McKee instructed the investigator. “I imply, voter fraud goes to be prevalent so long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I imply, there’s no method to make sure a fair election.

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

Tom Henze, McKee’s legal professional, pointed to dozens of instances of voter fraud prosecuted in Arizona over the past decade, many for comparable violations of voting someone else’s poll, and mentioned no one got jail time in these cases. He mentioned agreeing with Lawson that McKee should do 30 days jail time would elevate constitutional issues of fairness.

“Merely stated, over a protracted period of time, in voluminous instances, 67 circumstances, no person on this state for related cases, in related context ... no one acquired jail time,” Henze mentioned. “The court docket didn’t impose jail time in any respect.”

But Lawson stated jail time was important as a result of the kind of case has changed. Whereas in years previous, most circumstances concerned people voting in two states because they either lived in or had property in both states, within the 2020 election people had bought into Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

“What we’re hearing is voter fraud is on the market,” Lawson advised the decide. “And primarily what we’re seeing right here is somebody who says ‘Properly, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s a big problem and I’m simply 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 feel the perspective you hear within the interview is the attitude that differentiates this case from the opposite circumstances.”

LaBianca mentioned that whereas she agreed with Lawson, ordering jail time would give McKee what she informed 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 docket might order jail time,” LaBianca mentioned. “However the document right here does not show that this crime is on the rise.

“And abhorrent as it might be for somebody like the defendant to assault the legitimacy of our free elections without any evidence, besides your own fraud, such statements are not illegal so far as I do know,” the decide continued.