Adrian Fontes

Hobbs issues 99th veto: Rejects election denialism, photo radar ban

BY: - May 26, 2023

Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday issued five more vetoes, rejecting Republican-led bills that state officials warned would have undermined and overcomplicated elections in Arizona.  With her five new vetoes, Hobbs has so far delivered 99 rejections in her first term as governor, the most of any of her predecessors.  One of the vetoes, Senate Bill […]

Maricopa County: Kari Lake should be sanctioned for lies during election trial

BY: - May 24, 2023

Kari Lake and her lawyers repeatedly lied to the court and misrepresented evidence during her election challenge trial last week and should be sanctioned for it, attorneys for Maricopa County wrote in a Tuesday filing.  “The misstatements of fact from Lake and her counsel are not a series of mere accidents or zealous advocacy; they […]

Hobbs shoots down anti-trans pronoun ban

BY: - May 22, 2023

Arizona Republicans seeking to restrict how trans and nonbinary students are spoken to by their teachers were sharply rebuffed by Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday, who vetoed a measure forcing teachers to secure parental permission before students could have their pronouns and chosen names respected.  “As politicians across the country continue to pass harmful legislation […]

Citing ‘plenary powers,’ GOP leader claims a non-binding resolution bans Arizona election machines

BY: - May 22, 2023

Claiming that a non-binding resolution overrides state law, an Arizona Republican state senator on Monday declared that Arizona counties are barred from using machines to count ballots — an assertion that was quickly shot down by elections officials, the state’s attorney general and county leaders. Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli penned a letter to all […]

Hobbs and Fontes call for sanctions, accuses Lake of continually changing arguments

BY: - April 14, 2023

Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes want the Arizona Supreme Court to sanction Kari Lake for peddling “frivolous conspiracy theories” in Arizona courts, while Lake keeps asking the court to reconsider her arguments that it has already dismissed.  “In the months since the election, Kari Lake has baselessly and relentlessly contested her […]

Lake: Don’t sanction me because I believe my fact-free claims

BY: - April 7, 2023

Kari Lake and her lawyers are asking the Arizona Supreme Court not to sanction them for their election challenge case because Lake “honestly believes that electoral misconduct and illegal votes determined the outcome of the 2022 gubernatorial election.” The Supreme Court invited the defendants in Lake’s case, Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian […]

Mark Finchem

Fontes asks court to order Finchem to pay $75,000 for bringing ‘groundless’ election challenge

BY: - March 28, 2023

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes wants Mark Finchem, the Republican Fontes defeated in last year’s election, to pay nearly $75,000 in attorney’s fees for filing what a judge said was a “groundless” lawsuit to overturn the election. Finchem lost by more than 120,000 votes, but still filed an election contest in which the conspiracy-friendly former […]

Hobbs, Fontes, Maricopa County clap back at Lake’s appeal to the AZ Supreme Court

BY: - March 14, 2023

Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and her lawyers “continue to malign and erode the foundations upon which our great state stands” through their court case contesting the November 2022 election results, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told the Arizona Supreme Court this week in a filing asking the court to reject Lake’s legal challenge […]

A bill to enable do-it-yourself election audits sparks rare bipartisan interest in Arizona

BY: - March 14, 2023

Behind closed doors this month, in a caucus room that typically holds members from just one party, in a state defined by its political divisiveness, a rare bipartisan parley unfolded. State Sen. Ken Bennett paced around the room explaining his idea for a Do-It-Yourself election audit. He wanted to create a path making it possible […]

Mark Finchem sanctioned in ‘groundless’ lawsuit to overturn the 2022 election

BY: - March 6, 2023

A trial court judge has said Republican secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem will be forced to pay attorney’s fees in what the judge called a “groundless” lawsuit that aimed to overturn his election loss. Finchem challenged his loss to Adrian Fontes, who won by about five percentage points — more than 120,000 votes. Finchem […]

David Stevens

Cochise County gives election skeptic recorder near full control of elections

BY: - March 1, 2023

Elections in Cochise County will now be run almost entirely by Recorder David Stevens, an election skeptic who has said he does not fully trust all of his county’s election procedures and believes the county can and should move to hand-counting ballots. The Board of Supervisors for the southern Arizona county voted 2-1 on Tuesday […]

Adrian Fontes and Stephen Richer, once political foes, talked potential Arizona election reforms

BY: - February 9, 2023

In a nondescript bar at the end of an alley in downtown Phoenix, the state’s most prominent election officials — and former political opponents — met Wednesday night to trade lighthearted jabs and ideas about how to improve Arizona’s election processes.  Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, and Republican Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer […]