Dems make their case for secretary of state
Candidates meet in early debate
Experience matters, the Democratic candidates for Arizona secretary of state said as they met in an early campaign debate Wednesday evening.
But the experience the two leaned on differed for each candidate.
Reginald Bolding touted his leadership as head of a nonprofit and as minority leader in the Arizona House of Representatives.
Adrian Fontes pointed to his four years as Maricopa County recorder, a tenure which included the controversial 2020 election. He said he was proud of his role in administering what he called an "amazing election" that has withstood unrelenting scrutiny, despite repeated and unsubstantiated claims from critics that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
The secretary of state oversees election administration and maintains a statewide voter registration database, perhaps the highest-profile functions of the office. But the secretary also is next in line to the governor and has numerous other duties, such as overseeing the state library and archives, registering notaries, and housing campaign finance and financial disclosure records for elected officials.
Katie Hobbs, a Democrat and the current secretary of state, is leaving after one term to pursue a bid for governor.
The two candidates agreed the Secretary of State's Office could improve the transparency of the election process by communicating more with the public.
Bolding said he's done that through his nonprofit, Our Voice, Our Vote, which he said has registered more than 50,000 voters. Fontes spoke in Spanish to underscore the importance of reaching a diversity of voters.
Both touted the benefits of early voting, which is under attack by Republicans in the wake of the 2020 election. Fontes said he supports the creation of an all-mail election system such as in Oregon, Utah and other states. He has said that is the safest way to vote.
Bolding added that while nearly 90% of Arizonans used early voting in 2020, election officials can't ignore the 10% who choose to go to the polls.
Bolding painted himself as an advocate, saying more work is needed to simplify the voting system, although he did not list any specific moves that he would take to do so.
Fontes highlighted his hands-on experience with election administration and his role in running four statewide elections.
“You have to know how these things work," Fontes said. "And that’s why experience matters in this state.”
Differences on election-related bills
After the debate, televised on Arizona PBS (Channel 8), the two sparred over some of the election-related bills that were debated by the state Legislature.
Fontes said he supports the idea of making ballot images available online, an idea floated by Rep. Mark Finchem, an Oro Valley Republican running for secretary of state and a chief proponent of the argument that the 2020 election was stolen.
Making images of ballots, which show how votes were cast but do not identify voters, could help boost confidence in elections, he said.
"People can count the ballots themselves online," he said. "That's a very positive, public-facing move toward destroying misinformation."
He said the county elections offices have the capacity to make these images possible, noting
Maricopa County is set up to do so with little added expense.
But Bolding disagreed, saying the counties would need more money to pull off such a practice, if it were required by law.
That, he said, is why his legislative experience is valuable as secretary of state; he's attuned to the realities and limitations of the current process.
He also disputed Fontes' advocacy of creating ballot tracking systems, such as Maricopa County has, for outlying counties. The systems notify voters when their early ballot request is received and when the ballot is returned to election officials.
Bolding said another bill at the Legislature would make such tracking impossible for anyone who used a vote center, which combines numerous precincts into one location.
The debate, sponsored by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, comes months ahead of the Aug. 2 primary. It is available online at the Arizona PBS website.
A debate featuring the four GOP candidates for secretary of state is still being arranged.