Arizona Secretary of State Calls Those Concerned About Election Integrity “Useful Idiots”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is a piece of work.

Despite repeated glaring deficiencies in Arizona’s election process, Democrat Fontes, who is ultimately responsible for conducting fair and free elections in the Grand Canyon State, remains defiant, combative and clearly in denial.

Fontes scoffs at Suggestions Arizona’s Elections Aren’t Secure

Appearing on Face the Nation last Sunday, Fontes was dismissive of suggestions that Arizona’s elections aren’t secure and that illegal aliens represent a threat to election integrity in the state.

Well, first and foremost, if and when something like that happens (an illegal alien voting), it is absolutely vanishingly rare. No system is perfect, and I’ll admit that right off the top. But the allegation that this is something that might turn an election, or is something much bigger than it is, that’s the nonsense that we are dealing with. And unfortunately, we still have candidates, elected officials and folks with large megaphones lying. They are directly lying to the American public, and they are basically playing the role of useful idiots.

Fontes finishes by going on some rant claiming those who question Arizona’s elections are doing the bidding of Russian operatives.

Fontes Version of Election Integrity

Ironically, Fontes does believe in election integrity, but like most Democrats in positions of power across the country, his definition probably isn’t the same as yours.

You see, Adrian Fontes believes the real threat to election integrity is right-wing extremists, who would like to intimidate and harass Democrat voters to keep them away from the polls.

When he was elected in 2018, Fontes set out to make elections secure by ensuring everyone was able to vote, regardless of the dubious nature of their eligibility.

This included diving into a “dead” pile of rejected voter registration forms that lacked critical information, including failing to fill out the form correctly, lack of proper documentation, etc. In fact, there were an estimated 100,000 rejected registration forms gathering dust in a pile in a Maricopa County warehouse.

Hmmm… If you applied to vote, what would you do if a couple weeks went by and you didn’t receive confirmation your registration was accepted?

I imagine, that like me, you would be on the phone with the Recorder’s office or down there in person until it was resolved. Voting is a big deal, and like a fraudulent charge on a credit card, you don’t just walk away and ignore it.

But apparently, 100,000 people did.

For Adrian Fontes, the dead registration pile represented an opportunity to virtue signal about voter suppression and “make a difference.” He ordered his staff to grab the reject boxes and start cross referencing them with the DMV database, and ultimately, anyone who applied for registration, regardless of whether they supplied the proper documentation, was automatically registered to vote if the cross reference identified a driver’s license match at DMV.

The problem with that? Arizona issues driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

Well, not technically, but if the alien is a “parolee,” that is, someone who is granted temporary protected status by a consulate in their native country, or at a port of entry, they can legally obtain a driver’s license in Arizona. Asylum seekers are also eligible. In fact, if you’re an illegal alien with any kind of work permit, Arizona will give you a driver’s license.

This is the “magic wand” J.D. Vance spoke about in his debate with Tim Walz. With a stroke of a pen from someone in Homeland Security, illegal aliens from a country with “unsafe” conditions can be granted temporary protected status, get a license, and register to vote in Arizona.

“But… But… Those with protected status wouldn’t do such a thing because it’s against the law,” you might say, “and they have to declare that they are citizens of the U.S. under penalty of perjury.”

And exactly who would enforce that law? Fontes? Woke leftist Governor Katie Hobbs?

Uh huh…

All is Fine in Arizona

Fontes may claim Arizona’s elections are secure, but in October, about a month out from election day, he announced the discovery of more than 218,000 voters who had not provided proper proof of citizenship. That represents 5.3% of all registered voters in the state.

Of course, this only affects state races because in Arizona’s voter bizarro world, you don’t have to show proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

After all, we trust you.

In a preemptive move, crafty Fontes went to the Arizona Supreme Court earlier in September after revealing he had discovered 98,000 ineligible voters. One can assume he was testing the waters, but no worries: the Court ruled that the error wasn’t the fault of the voters and there was not enough time to deal with the issue before the election anyway. So, when Fontes revealed the much larger number a couple weeks later, he knew in advance there would be no challenge because the court had already set precedent.

Not satisfied with the result, a group called Strong Communities Foundation, which is involved with voter outreach, filed a public records lawsuit to get the names of those voters who had not provided proper proof of citizenship.

Fontes went Defcon 1

Under oath, he claimed the names cannot be released because he fears for the safety of the voters on the list, and he “doesn’t want blood on his hands.” Fontes appears to be suggesting, without any proof, that Strong Communities Foundation might physically assault individuals on the list.

Further, Fontes claims that he normally wears a bulletproof vest, and security experts “have given me sufficient information that I should be very concerned with the release of any more information on any of these folks who activists and agitators have labeled as non-citizen voters or illegal alien voters.’’

Who are these security experts? What specific information have they based their assessment on? Is law enforcement involved? Have arrests been made? If Fontes, or anyone on the list, has been threatened, these people should be prosecuted immediately.

Finally, Fontes says that even though he knows there are 218,000 ineligible voters on the list, there really isn’t a list at all, so he couldn’t produce the names even if the Court required him to do so.

There appears there is a list that’s not really a list…

Okay.

Add it to the List of Questionable Election Activities in Arizona

The number of election irregularities in Arizona over the past four years is extensive, but here are a few of the most egregious:

* Why was there no chain of custody for almost 300,000 ballots in Maricopa County in 2022?

* In 2020, why was the EMS database in Maricopa County, which holds all the details associated with election processes, deleted the evening before a forensic IT audit was to commence?

* Why won’t Pima County address a multitude of alleged voter roll and voting process irregularities, including ineligible voters, uncertified equipment, misappropriated funds, voters that should have been removed from the voter rolls, altered canvas reports, compromised chain of command, unmanned drop off boxes, dead people on the voter rolls, hundreds of people registered at a single address, and voting equipment connected to the internet?

* Why has a report from the CONELRAD Group that identified “malfeasance, incompetence, and possible criminal activity” in Pinal County been completely ignored? The 695-page report found multiple problems with voting machines, individuals dropping handfuls of ballots into drop-off boxes, torn up Republican ballots and a concerted effort to suppress hand counts by the Pinal County Attorney.

* Why has the report by forensic IT expert Ben Cotton, which identified glaring vulnerabilities in the Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) Democracy Suite version 5.5B software used in Maricopa County, been completely ignored? According to Cotton, “An egregious security lapse provides anyone with access to the voting system with the tools to alter election results without likely detection.”

Gird Your Loins Republican Voters in Arizona

If you’re a Trump voter in Arizona, I would gird your loins for what will likely occur on election day. Reports indicate that a painfully long ballot will take up to 15 minutes to fill out per voter, and even though they were aware of the inadequacies, neither Maricopa nor Pima Counties have done anything to address a voting station shortage they knew about in advance.

Worse, remember that in 2021, Republicans controlled the Senate, House and the Governor’s office, but they failed to pass 13 consequential election integrity bills, including one that would have required a forensic IT audit after every election. In fact, none of these bills ever made it out of committee. So, just because they have an “R” by their name, don’t assume that person has your best interests at heart.

When you’re watching the election results roll in on Tuesday, don’t be surprised if the results in Arizona reflect a different outcome than the polls suggest. There is too much at stake for RINOs and woke leftists to go down without one hell of a fight, no matter what it takes to win.