Fontes says DOJ should help secure elections, not threaten Arizona officials with lawsuits

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes says if federal officials are serious about election security, they should provide more resources to states and counties instead of threatening criminal prosecution.

“Instead of giving us the money we need to update our systems that actually do the voter rolls and helping bolster these systems, they keep taking funding away,” Fontes told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Thursday.

Limited funding for election infrastructure has long been a thorn in his side.

Funding cuts add pressure to Arizona’s election infrastructure

Fontes has repeatedly called for more money to modernize Arizona’s election systems, including cybersecurity upgrades and an overhaul of the Arizona Voter Information Database. Last year, he told KTAR News the state’s election night reporting tool relies on in-house code understood by one 70-year-old programmer.

Fontes said that instead of providing funding to improve election technology and reduce delays, the Trump administration has scaled back election security programs through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

“Instead of helping us secure our elections by actually funding CISA, instead they’ve pretty much destroyed that institution,” Fontes said.

At the same time, the Department of Justice has warned election officials they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly keep noncitizens on voter rolls.

Fontes calls DOJ election warning ‘amateur hour nonsense’

He’s also questioning whether the DOJ understands how elections are run after the agency reportedly sent identical warning letters to officials across the country, including in states where secretaries of state do not directly oversee elections.

“This is a DOJ that is absolutely out of control. They don’t understand the law, they don’t understand the circumstances, they don’t know what they’re doing,” Fontes said. “What kind of amateur hour nonsense is this coming out of the DOJ?”

Fontes said the DOJ’s threats do not apply to him personally because he does not run elections. However, he called them insulting to county recorders and their staffs since county officials are responsible for running elections.

“I’m insulted on behalf of Justin Heap and I don’t agree with the guy on everything,” Fontes said. “This is an insult to him and his staff.”

Not only that, but it’s an insult to Arizona county election officials as a whole, he added.

“I’m here on behalf of those county officials of all political stripes who do good for Arizona voters,” Fontes said. “Arizona voters deserve better.”

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