Adrian Fontes confident that Election Day will go smoothly in Phoenix area

PHOENIX – Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes expressed confidence that there won’t be a repeat of the major glitches that marred the August primary election.

“We’ve got people that want to vote, and we are providing them a system that allows that to happen in earnest,” he told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Mac & Gaydos on Monday, one day before the midterm election.

In the primary, 62 Phoenix-area polling sites weren’t set up on time and not all workers were properly trained to deal with the issues.

“Lesson learned after August,” he said. “Right now we’re on top of it, and this is where we’re going to move forward. I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

Fontes wouldn’t go so far as to say he expects Election Day to be 100 percent error free.

“There’s not an election administrator in the United States of America that’s going to tell you that,” he said.

“However, even though we are expecting minor stuff to happen, and it always does, we’re prepared to deal with it quickly, and that’s the critical component here.”

Fontes has no doubt that the technology is reliable, saying it has produced 100 percent ballot accountability.

“When it’s plugged in, it works great,” he said. “That’s the hurdle we’ve got to get over tomorrow.”

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be human error.

“Humans make mistakes,” he said. “This is a human system.”

“It’s not going to be perfect, but we’re going to get as close as we can with the folks that we have.”

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