Fontes touts new election information portal

But in this case, it isn't against the latest virus. It's against the misinformation Fontes says seems to blossom every time there's an election.

And the Democratic secretary of state says he figures the more people who get inoculated through the web site he is creating, the fewer people who will be infected by what he says are the lies that some people like to tell.

"You never know what's the next little monster that's going to rear its ugly head,'' Fontes said.

"But the reality is, the effort we are engaged in now are confidence builders against the potential of those little monsters,'' Fontes said. "And we prepare folks to understand how the systems work so that they, themselves, are better equipped to deal with the potential questions.''

That question of confidence is not just a local issue.

President Trump himself has repeatedly questioned the security of the election system, most recently with his ongoing efforts to say mail voting is inherently unreliable.

There are still people in Arizona who still contend that Trump won the 2020 race despite the final official tally showing that Biden beat him by 10,457 votes.

That election resulted in Republican state senators hiring an organization known as Cyber Ninjas, which had no experience auditing elections, to review all of the ballots in Maricopa County with the belief it would overturn that 2020 race.

As it turned out, though, a hand count conducted at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix concluded that Biden actually won by a larger margin .

But what's on the website —  arizona.vote — isn't aimed specifically at conspiracy theories.

Some of what the website is designed to provide is just basic information, like the deadlines for registration. This year, that is Oct. 5 for those who want to vote in the Nov. 3 general election.

There also are instructions for getting an early ballot for those not on the Active Early Voting List and what kind of identification is necessary for those casting their ballots in person.

And there even are procedures where voters can track a ballot to confirm it was received and counted.

But Fontes said the website also is being designed to inoculate against situations "when some knucklehead gets out there and starts saying dumb crap about our elections.''

Consider, he said the demand for paper ballots.

"Well, in Arizona, all of our votes are cast on paper ballots,'' Fontes said, with those ballots fed into tabulators that do the counting.

That still doesn't satisfy some who insist that the totals are unreliable. But the secretary said that, rumors notwithstanding, the tabulators are not linked to the internet. And they also undergo mandatory "logic and accuracy testing,'' where a batch of sample ballots with known results are fed through tabulators to ensure they are counting accurately.

Further, Arizona law already requires a random hand count audit after every election where a certain number of races from a certain number of precincts — all chosen by party officials — are tabulated by hand to see if the totals match what the machines have counted.

Still, that hasn't always proven enough for everyone.

Two Cochise County supervisors, both Republicans, were indicted after the 2022 election for attempting to conduct a full hand count. Peggy Judd took a plea deal; charges are still pending against Tom Crosby.

Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould, also a Republican, went all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court in his unsuccessful bid to get immunity from possible prosecution by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes for his own efforts to demand a full hand count.

And as recently as Sunday, Republican Abe Hamadeh was still claiming that he won the 2022 race for attorney general despite the final tally showing Mayes beat him by 280 votes. He puts the blame on Democrat Katie Hobbs who at the time was the secretary of state.

Those claims about election irregularities have political implications.

Stephen Richer, the incumbent Maricopa County recorder, was ousted in the Republican primary in 2024 by Justin Heap who complained of "historically low voter confidence.'' Heap went on to win the general election.

And just this past month, Republican state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, hoping to defeat Fontes in November, raised similar claims.

"There's no doubt that confidence in our elections here in Arizona is at an all-time low,'' he said during a televised debate. "And the responsibility of that sits squarely on the shoulders of Secretary Fontes.''

That assertion, however, may not be accurate.

In an opt-in online survey of 948 registered voters last year, weighted to reflect political and other demographics, pollster Mike Noble asked about their confidence in elections. He found 70% said they were "totally confident.''

That included 77% of Republicans and 75% of Democrats, with political independents — about a third of all registered voters — dragging down the average with just 58% expressing confidence.

Noble said that is far different than when he conducted the same survey in 2021 -- at the height of the whole Cyber Ninjas audit -- when the confidence level was just 58%. And he particularly noted that was a highly partisan response, with just 40% of Republicans expressing confidence versus 80% of Democrats,

"The bipartisan alignment suggests that successful election administration and the passage of time have helped heal some wounds from previous electoral controversies,'' Noble said.

Fontes said those numbers reflect more than his performance.

While the secretary is designated the state's chief election official, the actual elections are run by county recorders and supervisors in each of the 15 counties, with a mix of both Republican and Democratic officials.

Fontes also said that the web site also can be a source to help those local officials when they are confronted with the questions about how elections work as well as security.

Still, he acknowledged, there always will be questions.

"No election has ever been perfect,'' Fontes said. "They can't be perfect. These are human enterprises.''

But he said that there are constant efforts at all levels to make them better.

All that comes down to what he believes the web site can accomplish.

"We can talk about how they work so that folks are so that folks are smarter about them and their judgments about our elections,'' Fontes said. "We want them to make intelligent, rational conclusions when it is that someone says something crazy.''

And that, he said, will pay off the next time something goes awry with an election.

"The problem isn't the problem,'' said Fontes.

"The problem is there are people out there who are motivated to sow distrust even if the little issue that might pop up is minor and easily explained,'' he said. "Their goal is to capitalize on mistrust. And our goal is to make sure the public is inoculated against the potential mistrust.''