PHOENIX (AP) – A Phoenix judge on Friday sentenced a woman to two years probation, fines and community service for voting on her dead mother’s ballot in Arizona in the 2020 general election.
But the judge rejected the prosecutor’s request that she spend at least 30 days in prison because she lied to investigators and asked them to hold accountable those who commit fraud with voters.
The case against Tracy Kay McKee, 64, is one of the few cases of voter fraud in the Arizona election in 2020 that has led to accusations, despite widespread belief among many supporters of former President Donald Trump that there has been widespread voter fraud that led to his loss in Arizona and other states on the battlefield.
McKee, who was from the suburbs of Phoenix in Scottsdale but now lives in California, wept as she apologized to Margaret County Labianka Supreme Court Justice before the judge ruled. McKee said he mourns the loss of his mother and has no plans to influence the outcome of the election.
“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee told LaBianca. “I do not want to justify my behavior. What I did was wrong and I am ready to accept the consequences of the court. ”
Both McKee and her mother, Mary Arendt, were registered Republicans, although she was not asked if she voted for Trump. Arendt died on October 5, 2020, two days before the early ballots were sent to voters.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson released a recording of McKee’s interview with an investigator in his office, where she said there was violent voter fraud and denied signing and returning the ballot to her mother.
“The only way to prevent voter fraud is to physically log in and hit the ballot,” McKee told investigators. “I want to say that voter fraud will be widespread, as long as there is mail voting, for sure. I want to say that there is no way to guarantee fair elections.
“And I don’t believe it was a fair election,” she continued. “I believe there was a lot of voter fraud.
Tom Henze, McKee’s lawyer, cited dozens of voter fraud cases prosecuted in Arizona over the past decade, many for similar violations of someone’s ballot, and said no one was jailed in those cases. He said agreeing with Lawson that McKee should be sentenced to 30 days in prison would raise constitutional issues of justice.
“Simply put, for a long time, in large cases, 67 cases, no one in this state for such cases, in such a context … no one got a prison,” Henze said. “The court did not impose imprisonment at all.”
But Lawson said prison is important because the way the case has changed. While in previous years most cases involved people voting in two states because they either lived or owned property in both states, in the 2020 election, people agreed with Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud.
“What we are hearing is that there is voter fraud,” Lawson told the judge. “And basically, what we’re seeing here is someone saying, ‘Well, I’m going to cheat voters because that’s a big problem, and I’m just going to slip under the radar. And I will do it because everyone else is doing it and I can get away with it.
“I’m not subscribed to it at all,” he said. “And I think the attitude you hear in the interview is the attitude that sets this case apart from other cases.”
Labianka said that although she agreed with Lawson, the prison order would give McKee what she told the investigator what she wanted: to prosecute people who had defrauded voters.
“And if there is evidence that this crime is growing and that increased deterrence may be needed, the court could order imprisonment,” Labianka said. “But the records here do not show that this crime is increasing.
“And as disgusting as it is for someone like the accused to attack the legitimacy of our free elections without any evidence other than your own fraud, such statements are not illegal, as far as I know,” the judge continued.
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