Arizona lawmakers approve election money. Fontes says system is still critically underfunded

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes thanked lawmakers for approving millions of dollars to pay for election-related expenses this year, but said the state’s elections systems are still critically underfunded.

For months, Fontes has asked lawmakers to let him use millions in leftover funds from last year’s Congressional District 7 special election to supplement election funding this year.

The Republican-led Joint Legislative Budget Committee at first declined to consider most of that request, only approving $650,000 for cybersecurity after the state’s candidate portal fell victim to a cyberattack last year.

But, on Thursday, the committee approved most of the remaining funds Fontes had asked for.

The $2.5 million approved by lawmakers includes $1.7 million for election expenses incurred by the state’s 15 counties; $500,000 for general and primary election costs; and $240,000 for security for the office through June.

The committee declined to consider requests for $200,000 for voter registration database planning and $160,000 for past security costs.

A drop in the bucket

In a statement, Fontes said the new money will address “the most pressing issues” heading into the 2026 election cycle.

According to a letter he sent to lawmakers, that includes testing voting systems, verifying candidate and ballot signature petitions and helping county election officials prepare for the upcoming midterm elections. The money will also pay for a variety of other county expenses, including extra election workers and operating costs for the statewide voter registration database.

But Fontes said there are still many election needs he can’t address under current funding levels.

“I’m grateful to the Legislature for stepping up and working with us once again to address them using funds that were already set aside for election purposes,” Fontes said in a statement. “Their action helps ensure Arizona voters can continue to rely on a secure, transparent and well-run election system. We are a long way off from adequately funded election administration in Arizona, but this is a step in the right direction.”

Fontes has long asked Gov. Katie Hobbs and legislative Republicans for millions of dollars in new funding to improve the various elections systems his agency administers, with little success.

He has pointed to that lack of funding when issues face his office, such as a recent outage in an outdated online portal used by candidates that crashed due to a coding error by the secretary’s IT staff.

According to the Secretary of State’s Office, it has asked for more than $17 million since 2023 that it has not received, including a $3 million request for cybersecurity and other election infrastructure and another $3 million request in 2024 to “modernize” election systems.

Politics and money

Whether that money will materialize in the next state budget is still an open question.

“We have a lot of needs, and a lot of systems that are out of date,” Sen. David Farnsworth (R-Mesa), who chairs the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, said last month. “And it’s a matter of priority.”

Republicans on the committee were already skeptical of Fontes’ request to re-allocate the funds from last year.

Sen. Mark Finchem (R-Prescott) and Rep. Neal Carter (R-San Tan Valley) both said they thought the $240,000 for security over the next four months was too high.

“That just seems like a lot of money to me,” said Finchem, who lost a bid for secretary of state to Fontes in 2022.

In a letter to the committee, Fontes noted that the money is needed for his personal security amid a rise in political violence and threats against election officials.

“Denying it now would expose the Secretary and his family to unmitigated and unacceptable danger during the 2026 election cycle,” according to the letter.

Republicans also took shots at Fontes over his ongoing fight with the federal government over the Trump administration’s demand for unfettered access to the state’s voter rolls. Fontes said some of that information is protected by state privacy laws, and the administration has sued Arizona over Fontes' refusal to hand it over.

Finchem said he doesn’t want to see the state’s election funding pay for litigation.

“And if we are going to spend time, treasure and resources on defending an untenable position, I, for one, am not in favor of that,” Finchem said.

Lawmakers attached a few conditions to the rollover funding it did approve for Fontes’ office, including prohibiting Fontes from using the funds for lobbying services or to pay for voter registration drives.