Secretary of State Adrian Fontes Wants Funding Increases for Running and Securing Arizona Elections

Ten out of Fifteen Arizona Counties have lost major election officials thanks in part to MAGA-Trumpist intimidation efforts.

Updates need to be made to election cybersecurity to ensure no foreign or domestic interference at the ballot.

Helping get vital electoral information to voters.

Strengthening Arizona’s economy by making it easier for small businesses to function.

Those are the priorities Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and his team outlined in their budget requests for the FY 24 fiscal year.

In the funding request, the Secretary of State’s office is asking for:

• “CriticalElectionWorkforce–Addcriticallyneededpositions to support counties.
•  Physical & Cyber Security Infrastructure – Security detail for the Secretary, protect SOS & counties from IT vulnerabilities, create Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) position.
• Business Services Enhancement – Professionalize staff in charge of making decisions on millions in job-creating investment.
• Voter Information Effort – Allow us to use already allocated Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funding to help counties get the word out about Presidential Preference Election, less than a year away.
•  Address Confidentiality Program – Stabilize revenue stream to keep our promises to victims.”

In an interview with Blog for Arizona to discuss his first 100 days in office, the Secretary relayed that his Administration is laying the groundwork for many of these priorities, stating:

“We are already working diligently to improve the statewide voter registration system, which is going to allow us to do the ballot tracking system that we promised during the campaign. One is the backbone of the other. We’ve got to make sure the core system that exists here in the office is healthy first. That’s on track, and I’m excited about that. We gained a new posture in the secretary’s office regarding internet security and technical security information. The security profile is much more robust than it was. I’m excited about that. That’s something that I talked a lot about during the campaign and we’re moving and shaking when it comes to business services. These are mostly technical improvements that we’re making behind the scenes that are going to have an impact as we move forward.”

In another interview with AZ Central, the Secretary stated:

“We’ve got a whole presidential preference election coming up in less than 10 months. We gotta get folks recruited, into office and trained. And we’ve got to get them certified.”

On social media, he posted:

Prominent leaders across a wide spectrum of Arizona’s elections, business, and nonprofit sectors today urged the Legislature to include my timely and reasonable requests in the FY2024 state budget. I appreciate their support. https://t.co/jRxbKsiqDb pic.twitter.com/T00MV9cV8c

— Arizona Secretary of State (@AZSecretary) April 13, 2023

I am proud to have these leaders join me in this urgent call for action to get the budget our office needs. More at the link: https://t.co/c7aJ84bfEy pic.twitter.com/8dvBOCWrSs

— Arizona Secretary of State (@AZSecretary) April 14, 2023

Secretary Fontes is right. The State should adequately fund election staffs at the county level, ensure everyone gets adequate information to make informed decisions at the ballot box and install a cyber and ballot security system that can withstand interference from domestic and foreign bad actors.