Elections operations went smoothly for the most part Tuesday for the primary — a stark change from recent elections past and the result of a whole lot of preparation by county and state election officials.
Joining The Show to talk more about how it all went is Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: So things went pretty well yesterday, very different than we were, where we were the last election. Are you relieved?
ADRIAN FONTES: Well, not, not really relieved. I mean, we kind of saw this coming. We started getting ready for this cycle back in January of 2023 when I took the Secretary of State's office, we made some significant adjustments in our training. We really worked hard with the counties to get them the resources that we needed. So, this is the result of that proper prior preparation that we learned what I learned about in the Marine Corps. So I think things are going pretty well.
GILGER: Lots of preparation. We did see one sort of odd issue with erasable ink come up on a very small number of ballots yesterday. What happened?
FONTES: Well, some of our, well, this actually is a testament to how, well, we are paying attention to every single ballot, right. We identified possibly up to 30 ballots statewide that may have had ink that could fade given too much heat. We saw this issue in some of our mail in ballots and we thought, you know what, let's put out a notice and figure out how we're going to deal with this and, and we have sort of contingencies for all kinds of things, including it turns out disappearing ink.
GILGER: You had a contingency for this. [LAUGHS]
FONTES: And, yeah, I mean, and this is really sort of, you know, and people don't think about these things, but we do. And I, I think we were, we were quick to let folks know that this might be an issue. But if you think about it really carefully, based on the enormous volume of ballots that come through our systems across the state, the fact that we noticed this issue and the fact that we were able to address it really is a testament to the professionalism of the county, election departments across Arizona. So kudos to them.
GILGER: OK. But speaking of enormous numbers of ballots, this is just a primary turnout, turnout kind of hovers around 30-some percent usually here. How many more voters are you expecting come November when Arizona's this crucial swing state? We've got a presidential race on the ticket, Senate races, all these big things.
FONTES: Yeah, I won't be surprised if we hit nearly three times the number of voters. So we should get, we should get north of about 80%, full turnout. I think, maybe closer to 90%. Given the excitement that we're seeing, particularly because of some of the shifting of late, I think.
Both of the bases are fired up a little more than they were and we always see this in presidential cycles. But, you know, the numbers were right about where they've always been for primaries in Arizona. You know, we've gotten anywhere down to from 29% to about 35% over the last five or six cycles. And so this is right about where we've always been and again, we have always done about the same in Arizona. People react differently, especially over the last few years, but pretty much this business remains pretty solid and pretty steady.
GILGER: Are you ready when it comes to elections operations for November? When really, like all eyes will be on Arizona and not just on results, but how things go at the polls.
FONTES: Absolutely. We're, we're not just ready, but I think in, and some people would say we're, we're going a little too far in some of our preparations, but that's good, right. We need to be ready for just about anything.
The world of election administration took a significant turn in January of 2017 when we were declared critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security. And so we had this entirely different perspective on the business that we had to inject into our planning. And so we've taken that posture and we've run with it and it has helped us a lot.
We got past that CrowdStrike or Cloud flare, whatever that software thing was, very quickly. In fact, Arizona's Department of State was the first state agency to identify the issue. We're the ones who notified the Department of Administration and Arizona's Department of Homeland Security. We had completely ameliorated the, the problem in our office by noon the next day.
So, you know, we've been really, really good at preparing and I feel really confident in the work that the counties have been doing across the state.
GILGER: Yeah, last minute or two here, I want to ask you about a few races. We just discussed with our politics desk that have to do with elections. The county board of supervisors, the county recorder race with Stephen Richer. Election denialism still remains strong as I'm sure you're aware in much of the electorate. What do you think this means and the makeup of these offices could potentially mean for the future of your work?
FONTES: Well, look, what we've seen in Arizona. And based on my experience is occasionally we'll get someone who comes into an election administration office and they might have a history of speaking out against the integrity or the veracity of our elections.
But as soon as they come into these offices and they start seeing the work that's done, they start seeing the checks and balances and understanding more and more of the processes they turn around and we've seen this in several of Arizona's counties. So far, we've got great partners with very diverse political viewpoints. But at the end of the day, I think once people realize what the work entails and how solid our processes are, they come around.
And so I hope that, thinking folks, regardless of their political affiliation or their current opinions will take the time to ask the questions and listen and, hopefully they'll serve our voters.
GILGER: Well, what about poll workers? This has been a big issue, getting enough poll workers, protecting them, security issues there. What do your preparations look like there? Will you have enough?
FONTES: Well, look, enough is one thing and we're always looking for more folks. Every county election department is responsible for that. So, if you're interested in being a poll worker, we absolutely hope that you will go to your county election department and let them know. They're always recruiting more folks so that we can have backups and so forth.
But we are keeping them safe. We are making sure that things are working really well. And I think yesterday is a testament to that and while we may have had smaller turnout, pretty much really smooth sailing across the entire state.
GILGER: Yeah, let me ask you lastly here real quickly about the Elections Procedures Manual that your office released and is now facing some legal challenges. One of the judges in one of those cases weighed in this week, saying she was concerned that changes your office made would infringe on First Amendment rights. What's your response?
FONTES: My response is that not all, all speech is protected speech. And sometimes when you say things, those things might actually be crimes. And number one, the regulations that we tried to put forward, protect voters when they go out to vote from people who want to intimidate them. And so when it comes down to it, I certainly do think we need to be very careful when it comes to talking about the First Amendment, but the First Amendment doesn't protect you from yelling “fire” in a movie theater. It also shouldn't protect you from trying to intimidate voters away from exercising their constitutional rights.
