Sec. Adrian Fontes says Trump is ‘trying to pick his own voters’ with election executive order

PHOENIX — Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes called President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the creation of a national voter eligibility list and imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting “a giant pile of bull(expletive)” and “unconstitutional.”

Fontes told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos the order is an overreach into the state legislature’s responsibility.

“Ultimately in substance, what we see is a president who’s trying to pick his own voters,” Fontes said. “At the end of the day, that is an un-American way of doing things.”

After news of the executive order broke, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes vowed to “use every legal tool available” to fight it.

“States run their elections, not the President of the United States, not the Department of Homeland Security,” Mayes said in a statement. “That is not a political opinion. It is bedrock constitutional law.”

Former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said the order shows a disconnect.

“It’s an executive order that’s written by people who maybe have theories about how elections are administered in the United States but don’t have much actual experience with administering those elections,” Richer told Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos.

What does Trump’s executive order want to do?

Trump signed the order Tuesday, calling on the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to compile a list of verified eligible voters in each state.

The order also seeks to bar the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to voters not on a state’s approved list, though legal experts say the president likely lacks the authority to direct the Postal Service, according to the Associated Press.

The order would also require counties to submit to the USPS, 60 days in advance, a list of all voters who will receive a mail ballot. According to Richer, that would effectively cut off Arizona voters who request ballots closer to Election Day, something state law allows up to 11 days before.

“That means that anyone who wants a mail ballot and says that maybe 15 days before or 30 days before … wouldn’t be on that list and therefore, by my reading, wouldn’t be allowed to get a mail ballot,” Richer said.

“(The order strengthens) election integrity by ordering citizenship verification for federal elections and modernizing and securing mail-in and absentee ballot procedures,” read a statement released by The White House.

The order also directs the attorney general to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of election officials who “distribute federal ballots to ineligible voters” and to withhold federal funds from states and cities that do not comply.

“The right to vote in federal elections is reserved exclusively for United States citizens under the Constitution and federal law,” the White House said in the fact sheet. “Lax verification and self-certification loopholes in some states have left gaps that undermine public confidence in election outcomes.”

The move is widely expected to face immediate legal challenges.

“I think the one thing that we know for certain is that this will be challenged, I suspect within 48 (to) 72 hours, including by the state of Arizona,” Richer estimated.

Much of Trump’s first election executive order, signed in March 2025, has already been blocked by federal courts, according to the Associated Press.

Would this impact the 2026 midterms?

Fontes called the order unworkable, estimating it would take five or six years to put this idea into practice. He pointed to flawed federal databases, citing a Texas county where 25% of records flagging non-citizens turned out to be verified citizens.

“The federal databases are all screwed up when it comes to this,” said Fontes. “We’ve got good lists here at the states.”

Both Mayes and Fontes pointed to Arizona’s long history with mail-in voting, noting more than 80% of the state’s voters cast ballots by mail through a system established by a Republican-controlled legislature.

“Even Donald Trump himself voted by mail earlier this month,” added Mayes. “The President is not trying to improve election security, he is trying to control who gets to vote.”

Fontes echoed that point, noting that mail-in voting is how Trump got elected in 2024.

“We already run really, really robust election security,” Fontes said. “It is a lie. It’s been a lie since 2020. It has been disproven over and over and over again.”

Fontes said he believes the order is meant to draw attention away from other issues facing the administration.

“I think this is a gigantic distraction from some of the real issues out there just to get us talking about something that isn’t going to live,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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