Tracey Kay McKee. Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
A white Republican who asserted Donald Trump lost the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud has been sentenced for illegally voting in the same election.
A Phoenix judge found 64-year-old Tracey Kay McKee guilty of using her dead mother's ballot to vote in the election and sentenced her to two years of felony probation, according to the Associated Press. She was also ordered to pay fines and do community service. The same judge also denied the prosecutor's request that McKee, a registered Republican in Arizona, serve at least 30 days in jail for lying to investigators.
During an interview with detectives, McKee reportedly told them there was rampant voter fraud in the country and it cost the former president another four years in office. She also denied voting illegally to investigators,
"The only way to prevent voter fraud is to physically go in and punch a ballot," McKee told authorities, per NewsOne. "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. And I don’t believe that this was a fair election. I do believe there was a lot of voter fraud."
The 64-year-old woman cried in front of Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret LaBianca, saying she was grieving the loss of her mother and never intended to change the course of the election.
"Your Honor, I would like to apologize,” McKee said. “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 case is one of the very few voter fraud cases that have popped up following the contentious 2020 election. Republicans and conservative pundits have promoted Trump's false claims of election fraud despite vast amounts of evidence debunking such claims.
The situation is especially jarring to civil rights activists since Crystal Mason, a Black woman from Texas, got prison time for using a provisional ballot while on supervised release in 2016.
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