A Scottsdale, Arizona, woman who cast her dead mother’s ballot in the 2020 presidential election escaped jail time Friday and was sentenced to two years probation instead.
According to Associated Press, the prosecutor in the case against Tracey Kay McKee, 64, argued that McKee should serve at least a month behind bars after she reportedly lied to investigators while also urging them to hold those who vote illegally to account.
In an interview with investigators, McKee said: “The only way to prevent voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot. … I mean, voter fraud is going to be prevalent as long as there’s mail-in voting, for sure. I mean, there’s no way to ensure a fair election,” McKee told investigators. “And I don’t believe that this was a fair election. I do believe there was a lot of voter fraud.”
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McKee’s mother, Mary Arendt, died on Oct. 5—just two days before early voting began.
The indictment against McKee alleges she “knowingly signed the name” of her mother, “under penalty of perjury,” and illegally submitted it to election officials during the period between Oct. 7 and Nov. 3.
Listen to a breakdown of the May primaries on Daily Kos Elections’ The Downballot podcast with David Nir and David Beard
According to reporting from the AZ Mirror, voter registration records from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office show that both McKee and her mother were registered as Republicans. AP reports that McKee was never asked whether or not she voted for former President Trump.
“Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret LaBianca just before she was sentenced. “I don’t want to make the excuse for my behavior. What I did was wrong and I’m prepared to accept the consequences handed down by the court.”
McKee’s attorney, Tom Henze, vehemently argued against jail time for his client.
“Simply stated, over a long period of time, in voluminous cases, 67 cases, nobody in this state for similar cases, in similar context ... nobody got jail time,” Henze said. “The court didn’t impose jail time at all.”
According to Fortune after an exhaustive review of voter fraud in six states by the AP, less than 475 cases were uncovered. Not nearly enough to have changed the outcome of Trump’s loss to Biden.
There is one case however that stands outs—Mark ‘Big Lie’ Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, was removed from voter rolls in North Carolina after it was discovered he was registered in both Virginia and North Carolina. Then yet another state popped up: South Carolina.
“What we’re hearing is voter fraud is out there,” Todd Lawson, the Assistant Attorney General in McKee’s case told LaBianca. “And essentially what we’re seeing here is someone who says ‘Well, I’m going to commit voter fraud because it’s a big problem and I’m just going to slide in under the radar. And I’m going to do it because everybody else is doing it and I can get away with it.’
He added, “I don’t subscribe to that at all.”