Arizona secretary of state debate rehashes old allegations, delves into new ones

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

SCOTTSDALE — The Sept. 30 Clean Elections Secretary of State debate involved some repeat accusations from both candidates — and some new ones.

The debate between Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes and Republican challenger Alexander Kolodin included some of the same elements of their August PBS debate, with some new mudslinging as well.

Kolodin began by calling how Fontes has handled elections as a “national embarrassment.” He called out Fontes for a decades-old indictment for crimes committed when he was an intoxicated 19-year-old.

On the current Arizona mail-in-voting system, Kolodin said he has tried, as a state legislator to speed up the ballot-counting process and protect military voters. He touted a bills he authored that were signed into law by the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs.

Fontes said Kolodin has also co-sponsored bills he argues would have made it tougher for Arizonans to vote, mentioning a handful of 2023 bills by number. None of those bills made it out of committee.

“Access matters,” Fontes said. “If you’re a busy mom or someone who has to make great efforts to vote, that’s not access.”

Kolodin accused Fontes of trying to “seize power” and throw out an entire county’s votes, which he said was nixed by a judge.

Fontes touted his experience as both Secretary of State and as the Maricopa County Recorder, along with his ability to work with Republican elected officials and to get endorsements from groups like first responders.

“We take responsibility — I do — when we don’t do things well,” Fontes said.

Kolodin said, like Fontes, he wouldn’t hand over voter data to President Donald Trump’s executive-branch agencies, either, but he would do more to follow state laws and maintain voter rolls, track irregularities and ensure non-citizens aren’t voting.

Fontes said Kolodin is on record saying he would have given such data to the federal government. He also chided Kolodin for voting to cut the secretary of state’s departmental budget by 50%, which he feels would have hindered election efficiency and security.

Both accused each other of lying about 15 times in the hour-long debate. Fontes said Kolodin had a key role in getting Proposition 144 on the ballot, which, if passed, Fontes claims would harm mail-in and early voting.

“Lies .... lies,” Kolodin said while Fontes was still speaking.

Fontes said identifications are checked at polling places and that a recent study showed eight out of a 60,000-voter sample size voted illegally, which is about as close to perfection as voters can reasonably expect. Kolodin said any unlawfully votes dilutes the process; he said if there are eight in 60,000, there are likely many more among the millions who vote statewide.

Fontes, responding to a question about faster election results, said he doesn’t think Arizona will ever get to the point where every ballot in the state is counted on election night. But he said the funding was finally approved recently by the Legislature to prompt faster results.

“States like Utah, which takes longer to count than us, aren’t scrutinized because the media can more accurately predict that state’s results,” Fontes said.

Kolodin said having election systems hacked is “unacceptable.” He said it’s important to ensure there isn’t a way to penetrate systems using the Internet. Fontes said the Legislature has consistently underfunded that aspect of his department and that he has a generative AI standing security committee.

“The work we did to get ready for things like the 15 bomb threats called in on Election Day (2024) made it so that most folks didn’t even know those happened,” Fontes said.

Kolodin said the state is doing an “awful job” of maintaining voter rolls. Fontes again said implementing an all-new system takes Legislature-approved funding.

Kolodin repeatedly mentioned the case of Emilia Palomina-Robles, in which Fontes represented someone who tried to purchase a Stinger missile and other U.S. military weapons for the Sinaloa drug cartel.

“It’s such weak sauce for him to keep going to that cartel stuff, when I was defending the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth amendments as a public defender,” Fontes said.

Kolodin repeatedly said Fontes hasn’t followed the law and lost court cases. Fontes said Kolodin hasn’t looked out for the average voter in the way he represents.

Fontes took questions from reporters after the debate, which was moderated by Steve Goldstein and Danielle Lerner, while Kolodin did not.

One question was about what Fontes’ department is doing to prepare for the upcoming Nov. 3 election.

“We’re working with the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, the National Guard, professional cybersecurity experts and the security division that I created within my own office,” Fontes said.

He also took a question about why his department is involved in so many lawsuits.

“We’re winning a lot more of those than we have problems with,” Fontes said. “You’ve got a grifting, election-denialist legal culture with a lot of lawyers in it — lawyers like Mr. Kolodin, who make their living, their private money, suing the state, wasting taxpayer money on these lawsuits. Most of them, we win, because they’re BS. What should I do? Sit back and let them destroy the way we vote? Kill vote-by-mail and other things that work well? I wish I didn’t have to defend it so much.”

Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.