By Staff Reporter |
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has released key records necessary to determine voter eligibility after his attempt to blame the federal government was disputed.
Fontes released those federal felony conviction reports on Tuesday after Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap publicly contested Fontes’ explanation to county recorders as to why those records were missing.
Fontes reportedly claimed that the federal government hadn’t provided updated felony reports for about a year, telling ABC 15 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was responsible for holdup and that Heap was engaging in “a purely political stunt.”
However, Heap revealed last week that the DOJ confirmed to him that those reports were provided to Fontes.
Heap said in an updated statement on Tuesday that he learned about the reports’ availability after calling the DOJ directly. Heap said Fontes’ delayed release of the reports has put the recorders under an extremely tight deadline since early voting begins October 23.
“After we exposed his failure publicly, the missing files suddenly appeared,” said Heap. “Our pressure delivered results for all 15 counties. Now Recorders across the state must tackle his backlog just days before early voting begins.”
Heap expressed concern to The Center Square that felons may cast votes in the upcoming election due to the delayed delivery of the records.
“I think there’s a strong likelihood that some felons are going to be voting this election cycle because the secretary of state has not carried out his lawful responsibility,” said Heap.
Heap also advised that the delivery format of records in the past has been problematic. According to Heap, Fontes’ office has delivered files in an unusable format by providing them in a PDF form rather than CSV plain-text format.
Sergio Arellano, Arizona Republican Party chair, accused Fontes of being a habitual liar and endorsed Fontes’ opponent, Alex Kolodin.
“A pattern of lies and deceit from the Secretary of State Fontes is not what AZ needs,” said Arellano.
Fontes did not issue a statement addressing the withheld records. However, he did address the results of the probe into alleged noncitizen voters discovered by Heap’s office.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell reported that 52 of the 60 voters referred to her office for alleged noncitizen voting were citizens, and eight of the 60 voters were legal residents registered due to a flaw in the Motor Vehicle Department system.
Fontes appeared to echo Heap’s critical language in his statement responding to Mitchell’s findings.
“I find it deeply disappointing that others have used this moment to spread the false narrative that our elections are not secure but, thankfully, they have once again failed to provide any proof to substantiate their claims,” said Fontes.
Heap said in his statement last week that he was “disappointed” by Fontes’ decision to misrepresent the status of the withheld felony reports.
“As the County Recorder for Arizona’s most populated county, I am disappointed that Secretary Fontes would gamble the trust of Arizona voters on a lie,” said Heap. “Arizona is missing at least three full quarters of felony data and voter ineligibility due to Secretary Fontes’ failure to follow the law.”
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