Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes appeared before Congress on Wednesday, where he sparred with Republican lawmakers over claims of voter fraud and called for more funding for state election offices.
The Committee on House Administration hosted Fontes and secretaries of state from Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, New Mexico and Michigan to discuss preparations for the upcoming November election.
Fontes told the committee that his office takes many steps to prepare for elections. That includes holding tabletop simulations for election workers, implementing a statewide ballot tracking system and creating a fellowship program to train the election officials of the future.
He said the office also improved its technology services for rural voters and those living on Native American communities.
Those programs are expensive, Fontes said, and state election offices do not have dedicated, ongoing federal funding to pay for them.
Votebeat reported that Congress set aside $425 million for Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, grants to state election officials in 2020 but approved just $55 million this year.
“Do the same for highways and dams and railroads and see what happens,” Fontes said. “We implore you. Please consider, if this is such a big deal and if it is so important that we continue to have free, fair and secure elections, fund them.”
Fontes also tangled with Republicans on the committee over claims that fraud has impacted U.S. elections.
“There is fraud in every election, I mean we have to acknowledge that,” Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk said. “ It's an issue that's in our country. It's in every state. It's minimizing that fraud as best as we can to make sure that it doesn't affect the outcome of the election.
Fontes disagreed.
“First and foremost, I have to take umbrage with the notion that the conclusory statement that you made there is fraud in every election,” Fontes said. “That's just not true. It's never been proven.”
The Associated Press reported there were 475 alleged voter fraud cases being investigated in six battleground states after the 2020 presidential election, too few to influence the results of that race. In Arizona, there were ultimately five convictions for illegal voting or attempted illegal voting following the primary and general elections.
There were also four convictions for ballot harvesting for violations of an Arizona law that bars individuals from collecting and returning early ballots for another person. The law only includes exceptions for a family member, household member or caregiver
Fontes also disagreed with comments by other Republicans on the committee who suggested that voting by non-citizens is a widespread problem.
“We took this action after seeing evidence of non-citizens on voter rolls in many states across the country,” said Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil, referring to the SAVE Act, a piece of Republican-backed federal legislation that would require people to provide proof of citizenship to vote.
Fontes called voting by non-citizens “vanishingly rare.”
In Arizona, none of the five individuals convicted of illegal voting or attempted illegal voting since 2020 were non-citizens. Most of those cases dealt with individuals voting using a dead relative's ballot or convicted felons attempting to vote despite not being eligible.
