A judge in Phoenix sentenced Tracey Kay McKee to two years of felony probation, fines, and community service on Friday, April 29, for casting her dead mother's ballot in Arizona during the 2020 election.
The judge rejected a request by the prosecutor that McKee serves at least 30 days in jail because she lied to investigators and demanded that they hold accountable those committing voter fraud, according to NBC News.
The case against McKee is one of just a handful of voter fraud cases from the 2020 election in Arizona that have led to charges, despite the widespread belief among former President Donald Trump's many supporters that there was extensive voter fraud that led to his defeat in Arizona and other battleground states in the U.S.
Emotional McKee apologizes to judge before sentencing
McKee, who once lived in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale but now resides in California, sobbed as she apologized to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret LaBianca before the judge handed down the 64-year-old's sentence. According to McKee, she was grieving over the loss of her mom, and she had no intention of impacting the outcome of the national election.
McKee told LaBianca in her apology that she did not want to make an excuse for her behavior. McKee admitted that what she did was wrong, and she is prepared to accept the consequences handed down by the court.
Both McKee and her deceased mother, Mary Arendt, were registered Republicans, although she was not asked if she voted for Trump in the trial. The Arizona Republic reported that Arendt died on October 5, 2020, two days before early ballots were mailed to voters in the state.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson played a tape of McKee being interviewed by an investigator in his office during the trial. McKee said in the recording that there was rampant voter fraud and denied accusations that she had signed and returned her mother's ballot.
McKee said there was a lot of voter fraud in recording
McKee told the investigator that the only way to prevent voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot. She added that voter fraud would be prevalent as long as there is mail-in voting, telling the investigator that there is no way to ensure a fair election. Mckee also said during the recording that she does not believe that this was a fair election and that she believes there was a lot of voter fraud.
McKee's attorney, Tom Henze, pointed out in his argument that no one got jail time in the dozens of cases of voter fraud prosecuted over the past decade in Arizona. Henze said that many of those cases were for similar violations of voting on someone else's ballot. Henze added that agreeing with Lawson that McKee should serve 30 days of jail time for this offense would raise constitutional issues of fairness, according to a report by the New York Daily News.
