AZFEC Calls for Investigation into Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ Potential Misuse of Taxpayer Dollars
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Last week, in an unexpected, politically motivated, and potentially unlawful use of taxpayer dollars, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes filed a brief in Smith v. Fontes at the Supreme Court of Arizona, attempting to ensure that votes for Proposition 140 are counted in the November General Election regardless of its eventual legality. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is standing for the hardworking and freedom-loving men and women around the Grand Canyon State by calling for an investigation into Fontes’ potential use of taxpayer funds in support of Prop 140, and for his recusal from any ballot tabulation related to initiatives in the upcoming election.
By filing his brief at the Arizona Supreme Court, Fontes unequivocally signaled his position that 40,000 duplicate signatures should be ignored and counted in favor of passing Proposition 140. In short, to Fontes, the ends justify the means to ensure that Arizona’s elections system can be operated like California’s radical system.
For over a year, Secretary Fontes has been actively working with the Prop 140 campaign in order to secure its passage. Fontes is currently listed as a “team member” on the Save Democracy AZ website, which is the nonprofit behind Proposition 140. Fontes’ filing and work with Save Democracy and also Open Primaries Inc. severely compromise his impartiality in tabulating November’s election results given his clear conflict of interest.
Furthermore, this brief from Fontes wasn’t even requested by the court, demonstrating a clear desire to sway the judicial process in favor of left-wing attempts to ignore the law about which ballot measures may be considered by voters.
“Secretary Fontes and his allies on the Make Elections (Un)Fair Committee are urging the court to count unlawful duplicate signatures in order to ‘preserve democracy,’” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Far from acting as a fair and impartial elections chief, Fontes has officially taken a side in a controversial measure that would be potentially on the ballot, showing Arizonans that he is using taxpayer dollars to make the case for a California-style amendment that would fundamentally transform the way we vote and select our candidates for public office. This is not saving democracy; this is trampling the will of the people and the laws that govern how elections should be executed.”
Mussi added, “We believe that a public investigation of the Secretary’s overt political actions is necessary, specifically to determine whether taxpayer resources may have been deployed in support of the Yes On Prop 140 campaign. In addition, Fontes must recuse himself of any involvement of ballot tabulation related to initiatives in the November General Election due to his partisan shenanigans here. Arizona voters must have complete trust in their officials to conduct themselves honorably, ethically, and lawfully in every matter concerning our sacred elections.”
Additionally, Secretary Fontes’ filing at the Arizona Supreme Court showed incredible hypocrisy when compared to his filing at the Arizona Superior Court on the very same day in Kirkland v. Way, where he argued that his office should be ordered to disregard votes cast for an allegedly ineligible candidate, who is a Republican running for the state legislature. This position at the Superior Court is exactly the opposite argument of what he produced in the Proposition 140 case for the Supreme Court.
The matter at the state’s high court is that the signature challenge lawsuit against Proposition 140, which faced a potential deadline due to the imminent printing of ballots, may continue in order to ensure that duplicate signatures are examined and removed from the final tally. If the duplicate signatures in question are removed, the measure would lack the minimum number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot. Prop 140 is seeking to enact a California-style election scheme built around ranked choice voting and jungle primaries.
Read the Secretary’s response urging the counting of duplicates here.
Read the response brief urging the Supreme Court to allow the review of the duplicates to continue here.
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