Fontes is grilled on election problems
Recorder denies blame; supervisors plan audit
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Wednesday grilled Recorder Adrian Fontes over election-day problems that impacted 95 precincts and thousands of voters.
Last Tuesday, polling places were not ready to open at 6 a.m. when voting was set to begin.
Fontes blamed the issue on an IT contractor who he said did not provide the agreed-upon resources to set up voter check-in machines. The Tempe-based contractor disputed Fontes’ claim and pointed the finger back on an unprepared Recorder’s Office.
The county supervisors, who do not have direct oversight of the Recorder’s Office but do allocate funding for the office, met Wednesday to finalize election results and discuss the issues.
The supervisors voted unanimously to spend up to $200,000 on external auditors who will assist the county’s audit team in reviewing what went wrong on election day. Auditors will suggest fixes to ensure the issues don’t occur during November’s general election, when turnout is expected to be much higher.
“I don’t think we have any choice,” Supervisor Bill Gates said. “We have to do this. The right to vote and the right to be able to vote when you want to vote during those voting hours is fundamental.”
The typically mild-mannered Board of Supervisors did not hold back from criticizing Fontes for the mistakes.
Fontes told the supervisors that he found out at about noon the day before the election that the contractor who was supposed to install the voting equipment was behind on setting up polling locations.
Chairman Steve Chucri said he spoke with Fontes at 2 p.m. that day and Fontes did not notify him of any issues.
“You and your team have collaborated with this board when you were looking for polling places, yet you did not see it important enough to reach out to us when this crisis occurred on Monday afternoon,” Chucri said.
Fontes said he thought the contractor would come through with the needed staff to complete the set-up on Monday night or Tuesday morning, which is why he didn’t notify the board at that time.
Chucri also questioned whether the contractor was to blame for the issues. The contractor has denied responsibility.
Chucri said an audit is necessary, not to point fingers, but to make sure the same issues do not happen again.
“There’s not a jurisdiction on the planet that’s ever had a 100 percent perfect election. I’m not making excuses; that’s just the way it is. And we are again going to try to move forward to resolve some of the circumstances that were incredibly unfortunate and just flat bad.” Adrian Fontes Maricopa County recorder
Fontes said his office’s contract and communication with the contractor will “flesh out” the truth.
The Recorder’s Office has not yet complied with a week-old public-records request from The Arizona Republic for that correspondence.
Beyond some polling places opening late, voters have reported a number of other seemingly unrelated issues at polling places across the county, the supervisors told Fontes.
The supervisors shared stories about poll workers who felt unprepared for their responsibilities, voters receiving incorrect ballots and other concerns about the security of ballots.
“We’ve got to be better,” Supervisor Denny Barney said. “We can’t have a repeat ... of what we experienced a week ago.”
Fontes acknowledged the concerns and said he would continue to work with the supervisors on individual voter issues.
“There’s not a jurisdiction on the planet that’s ever had a 100 percent perfect election,” he said. “I’m not making excuses; that’s just the way it is. And we are again going to try to move forward to resolve some of the circumstances that were incredibly unfortunate and just flat bad.”
The meeting came a day after Fontes broke his silence about the election-day woes in an unannounced Facebook live video.
Fontes said his office is preparing a report that will answer questions voters and the media have asked over the past week. The report will be released today, he promised. Recorder’s Office staff told The Arizona Republic that Fontes would not answer questions until all ballots had been counted. The Republic sent more than a dozen questions to the Recorder’s Office about the voting issues and procedures.
In the Facebook video, Fontes said he has not responded to media questions because he wanted to make sure he had all information to supply a complete answer. He also said he would prefer to speak directly to voters through methods such as Facebook live and the report he will release.
“We’re not going to worry about politics and name-calling and blame casting,” he said. “We’re not going to worry about headlines. We’re going to worry about getting you the information directly from us so that we can continue to be transparent, which we have been since I got elected.”
The recorder is an elected position. Fontes, a Democrat, successfully ran on a campaign that criticized Republican Helen Purcell after she faced unrelated voting issues as county recorder.
Following Wednesday’s meeting, Republic again asked to speak with Fontes. A spokeswoman said he would not talk until after the report is released.