Fontes on U.S. elections: 'We have a threat from the executive branch itself'

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes appeared at a congressional forum in Washington, D.C., to talk about security concerns ahead of the nation’s upcoming elections.

Fontes told the Senate Democrats who hosted the meeting that local and state election officials used to have a close working relationship with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, a federal agency created during President Donald Trump’s first term to help states deal with election security threats.

“It was not that long ago that I had the director of CISA's personal cellphone number in my phone. That's the kind of relationship that we had with our partners,” Fontes said.

But he says that’s not the case anymore.

Fontes’ comments come as many state officials told NPR they are not receiving the same level of support from CISA.

Rather than helping, Fontes accused the Trump administration of exacerbating the issues facing election officials.

“Now we have a threat from the executive branch itself, and that is in the fomenting of this misinformation and lies and erosion of confidence,” he said.

A CISA spokesperson told NPR that it still provides “state and local election officials, upon request, no-cost voluntary services such as the sharing of threat information, technical expertise, vulnerability scanning, and resilience-building support.”

Fontes said his issues with the Trump administration go beyond the CISA problem.

He also accused the federal government of taking other steps that he says are eroding voter confidence and making it harder to run elections. That includes suing Arizona and other states for sensitive voter information.

The Trump administration has defended its efforts to obtain voter data, saying that information is needed to make sure states are properly cleaning their voter lists and ensuring only citizens are on the rolls.

But Fontes argued those justifications are based on the false notion that millions of non-citizens vote, which is not supported by data.

“This is not a D versus R fight,” Fontes said. “This is not a left versus right fight. This is a fight between those who would devolve this nation into an authoritarian state, and those of us who appreciate the fact that it is the governed under whose consent the government operates.”