by Staff Reporter | Feb 12, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Tesla CEO and former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk is urging the federal government to ban mail-in voting.
Musk and other top Republican leaders have signaled support for greater federal intervention in state and local elections.
“Voter ID and in-person voting is the only way to save democracy,” said Musk. “Critical to avoid fraud.”
Although X influencers said Musk’s comments were “breaking news,” the SpaceX CTO has advocated for in-person voting, along with ID requirements, for years.
“We should require government ID and in-person voting (unless valid medical/military/etc excuse), like other countries do or like if you want to buy beer,” said Musk in a comment over two years ago.
In the summer of 2024, Musk also advocated against electronic and drop box ballots. Musk said additional voting methods beyond in-person voting created additional variables that made it much more difficult to detect fraud.
“When combined with mail-in ballots, the system is designed to make it impossible to prove fraud,” said Musk. “Mail-in and drop box ballots should not be allowed, as cameras on the in-person voting stations would at least prevent large-scale fraud by counting how many people showed up vs ballots cast.”
Last week, Musk backed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, legislation to amend a gap in citizenship proof existing in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.
Proof of citizenship would include a REAL ID-compliant ID, a passport, military ID with proof of U.S. birth, government-issued photo ID card with proof of U.S. birth, or a government-issued photo ID along with a certified birth certificate, an extract from a U.S. hospital record of birth, a final adoption decree, a consular report of birth abroad, a naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship, or an American Indian card.
“It must be done or democracy is dead,” said Musk.
Rep. Andy Biggs, candidate for Arizona governor, said the bill wasn’t controversial as the media portrayed it.
“It’s not controversial to require proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote — countries around the world require both!” said Biggs.
Reps. Eli Crane and Paul Gosar also support the legislation. The pair signed onto a letter urging the Senate to act on the legislation.
Although Musk departed DOGE over certain policy agreements earlier last year, he does agree with President Donald Trump on mail-in voting.
“No mail-in ballots (except for illness, disability, military, or travel),” posted Trump to Truth Social.
Trump had made his criticism of mail-in ballots during public conversations urging the passage of the SAVE Act, though the legislation doesn’t ban mail-in voting. Instead, the legislation would require mail voters to submit an application to receive their ballot.
The president has also issued another call to action not included in the SAVE Act: federalizing elections.
Last Monday the president said in an interview that the federal government should take over elections from the states. He proposed the takeover during the debut of former FBI director Dan Bongino’s newly resurrected podcast. Bongino will also return to his role as a Fox News contributor.
“We should take over the voting in at least many places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” said Trump. “We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes.”
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by Staff Reporter | Feb 11, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The state’s elections portal for candidates experienced another outage, prompting leaders of both political parties to cast blame at the other.
The E-Qual system experienced an outage that lasted from Friday through Sunday. This portal allows voters to sign candidate nominating petitions and give qualifying contributions. It also houses some sensitive candidate data.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes blamed the outage on the accelerated primary election schedule. Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a Republican-led bill into law on Friday that moved the primary election to the second to last Tuesday in July, a bipartisan decision to accommodate military voters.
Fontes said a “typo” caused the outage, which he promised was “temporary” on Friday. However, he said his team wasn’t to blame. Fontes said he was dealing with insufficient staffing and outdated systems caused by the GOP-controlled legislature.
The secretary of state put a price on his problems: $17 million to overhaul the election and candidate-facing systems. A one-time funding boost that occurred in 2024 wasn’t enough, Fontes said.
In a premature announcement on Friday that would quickly be proven false, Fontes claimed the system was fixed. Fontes again stressed that the outages his team was experiencing were preventable — the fault that caused the outage had less to do with a “typo” but inadequate funding from the legislature.
“System interruptions are preventable and my office will continue requesting the necessary funding to mitigate issues in the future,” said Fontes.
In a longer video statement from the comfort of his Super Bowl setup on Sunday, Fontes said E-Qual was “fragile,” “old,” and “outdated” due to the legislature’s refusal to provide fiscal support for updates. Fontes further promised that important data relating to tabulation and voter information weren’t impacted.
“Some people wanted to politicize this,” said Fontes. “The failure is the legislature that has been exploiting this longtime issue that I’ve been trying to get fixed for years and they’re not funding it. It’s as if they broke it and they want to blame someone else for breaking it.”
Fontes later disclosed to reporters that one single person was in charge of maintaining the main election management systems for their office. Fontes said he pays a lot to keep that individual on staff as a contractor.
Republican lawmakers rejected Fontes’ attempt to push the blame onto them.
State Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-LD3), who is campaigning to unseat Fontes this November, said more money couldn’t fix incompetence.
“Even with millions in additional funding, voters are still being disenfranchised by his incompetence,” said Kolodin. “Waste of money!”
In a similar vein, State Rep. David Livingston (R-LD28) questioned how Fontes’ office caused such a major outage over a typo — and how another tens of millions of dollars could have prevented such an error.
“I think the other information, changing July 21, should just be standard operating procedure, and they shouldn’t need any money to do that,” said Livingston. “And if they can’t handle doing that, they probably shouldn’t be running the secretary of state’s office at all.”
Livingston is vice chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which Fontes called out when identifying those who were to blame.
Some lawmakers had a little less to say on the subject.
The new chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, Sergio Arellano, said Fontes was again proving his inability to own his mistakes.
“Arizonans expect elections to be administered with competence and seriousness, and when preventable failures occur, they demand accountability — not silence, not excuses, and not business as usual,” said Arellano.
Last summer, Iranian hackers breached the E-Qual system under Fontes’ watch.
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by Staff Reporter | Feb 10, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Another illegal alien who entered the country under President Joe Biden has taken lives.
30-year-old Bekzhan Beishekeev, a Kyrgyzstani national, killed four Amish men when he drove the wrong way into oncoming traffic in Indiana on Tuesday. The victims were identified as Henry Eicher, 50 and his sons Menno, 25, and Paul, 19; and Simon Girod, 23.
The driver of the struck vehicle, 55-year-old Donald Stipp, remains in the hospital. Stipp’s daughter-in-law launched a GoFundMe to cover Stipp’s medical expenses and recovery.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed reports that Beishekeev entered the U.S. illegally in December 2023 at the Nogales port of entry. Beishekeev used the CBP One app, which effectively allowed illegal aliens to enter the country and work for two years without vetting.
As with millions of others before him, the Biden administration exercised their “catch-and-release” policy on Beishekeev, freeing him on parole.
The White House issued a statement calling the deaths a “preventable tragedy” that illustrated the need to continue mass deportations and end sanctuary city policies.
The Trump administration revoked legal status for illegal aliens who relied on the CBP One app to delay their immigration proceedings. Over 900,000 illegal aliens entered the country using the app.
The state of Pennsylvania awarded Beishekeev a non-domiciled CDL last July, with an expiration date of June 2029. Beishekeev’s license reflected a home address in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declined to directly address the incident.
A spokesperson for Shapiro said that Beishekeev provided proof of identity and legal presence verified by the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, as per Pennsylvania law. Shapiro’s office said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was to blame for not catching Beishekeev’s legal status upon assuming the agency.
“The individual in question had legal status in Kristi Noem’s database when the license was issued in July 2025 and still shows as eligible to receive a license as of today,” said Shapiro spokesman Alex Peterson. “Kristi Noem should focus on minding the shop in her own agency, as her incompetence and operational failures seem to be matching the scale of her moral failures as the Secretary of Homeland Security.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded that Shapiro’s administration bore responsibility for granting CDLs to CBP One parolees.
“Not only was Bekzhan Beishekeev released into our country by the Biden administration using the CBP One app, but he was also given a commercial driver’s license by Governor Shapiro’s Pennsylvania,” said McLaughlin. “It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating semi-trucks on America’s roads. These sanctuary governors must stop giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses before another American gets killed.”
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said the blame was with Democratic leaders rejecting immigration law.
“Hoosiers should be able to get to work in the morning without fear of needlessly losing their lives because of Democrats’ refusal to enforce the law,” said Braun. “With open and unchecked borders, millions of illegal immigrants flooded our communities, making every state a border state. Complicit democrats have put our safety at risk—and that has come at the price of innocent lives.”
Per reporting from Freight Waves, Beishekeev drove for a “chameleon carrier network” with officers bearing Kyrgyzstani names.
Chameleon carrier networks operate as separate-on-paper using different Department of Transportation (DOT) vehicle identification numbers, yet they rely on the same drivers, equipment, and management so as to continue operations when one or more within their network gets shut down.
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by Staff Reporter | Feb 9, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Several of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors reviewed the recorder’s new signature verification process this week.
Supervisors Mark Stewart and Debbie Lesko visited the recorder’s office on Friday to observe what Recorder Justin Heap has promised to be a stronger approach to signature verification.
Also present were members of the Maricopa County Republicans and local election integrity advocates.
Supervisor Stewart publicized some of the training materials given to elections workers tasked with signature verification, including metrics for accepting or flagging signatures based on broad and local characteristics.
The new format for signature verification has two levels of review, the first for the user and second for the manager. At the level one user review, two signature reviewers of differing political parties compare signatures with the reference signature on file.
Signatures with obvious matches based on characteristics may be accepted as good signatures, while signature comparisons that yield differences outweighing similarities must be flagged for level two review by a manager.
The level two managerial review concerns the review of all available signatures in a voter’s registration record, which can be upwards of 50 samples. The signature pool could include signatures from voter registration forms, verified early voting affidavits, and in-person sign-ins from rosters.
Signatures consistent with the signature pool would be approved and sent to another level two manager of a differing political party for review, while nonmatching signatures would be set aside for further action. The recorder’s office has a set limit of disposition types: no signature, household exchange, need packet (a catch-all disposition type), deceased (which flags National Voter Registration Act research), and pre-questioned signature.
That last disposition qualifies for automatic submission to another manager of a differing political party for level two review.
All signatures with any discrepancy at any levels are required to be part of a mandatory audit review, set at two percent currently.
Training materials also made clear the efforts by the recorder’s office to integrate user-friendly updates to signature review software.
Level one reviewer screens will display the current election affidavit signature alongside the historical affidavit signatures from newest to oldest, removing the old requirement for users to scroll to compare signatures.
The training materials also stressed that users should default to flagging signatures for review for any reasons other than a “good signature” determination.
The visit marked an unusual bright point in the strained relationship between the board and the recorder.
The board and recorder have been engaged in a year-long legal battle in the Maricopa County Superior Court over elections administration powers.
This week marked a particularly tenuous moment in the battle after board leadership issued subpoenas against three of the recorder’s staff members.
The Maricopa County Superior Court sided with the recorder on the issue and put in place a temporary restraining order against the board to halt the subpoenas.
Friday’s visit was not a signal by the two visiting supervisors that they were on the recorder’s side in this court battle. Lesko reposted statements from Board Chair Kate Brophy McGee addressing the subpoenas. Stewart issued his own statement recognizing the validity of arguments from both his fellow board members and the recorder’s office.
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by Staff Reporter | Feb 9, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Arizona lawmakers are showing their appreciation for law enforcement after a fatal helicopter crash took the lives of two on-duty responders.
The incident occurred late Wednesday night when an Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) helicopter crew lost control while dispatched to an active-shooter incident in Flagstaff.
The suspect in the active-shooter incident sustained non-fatal gunshot wounds and was apprehended.
The GOP-led Arizona House opened Thursday’s floor session with a moment of silence honoring the lives of the two lost. House Speaker Steve Montenegro expressed gratitude for Arizona’s law enforcement.
“These men served the people of Arizona with courage, with professionalism, and with quiet heroism. Every day, DPS personnel places themselves in harm’s way so that our communities can be safer,” said Montenegro.
State Sen. Kevin Payne, chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, stressed in a press release the importance of supporting law enforcement in the present climate.
“This tragic incident highlights just how challenging, unpredictable, and dangerous the job of law enforcement can be,” said Payne. “Our public safety professionals rush toward danger when others cannot, often putting themselves in harm’s way without a second thought. Today, we take a moment to recognize that sacrifice and honor the courage, dedication, and sense of duty that characterize those who serve.”
Gov. Katie Hobbs offered support to the ones left behind by the tragedy.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren expressed his condolences.
“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of two Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers who gave their lives in the line of duty,” said Nygren. “Their ultimate sacrifice reflects unwavering commitment, courage, and dedication to protecting others. Their legacy of service will not be forgotten.”
On Friday, AZDPS identified the two fallen as Pilot Robert Skankey, 61, and trooper-paramedic Hunter Bennett, 28.
Skankey served 22 years in the Marine Corps from 1988 to 2010, retiring as a lieutenant colonel before joining AZDPS in 2021. Skankey became aviation supervisor in 2024. He earned his master’s degree at Northern Arizona University.
He was an active member of his community: he founded the Kingman Young Marines nonprofit in 2015.
Skankey leaves behind a wife and four children.
Bennett joined AZDPS in 2022 as a top performer within his training academy, coming out at graduation with honors as class speaker. Prior to joining AZDPS, Bennett graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University’s Barrett Honors College.
Bennett leaves behind his high school sweetheart, whom he married in 2024.
The crash remains under active investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are working with AZDPS on identifying the cause of the crash.
In a press conference on Friday, AZDPS advised that it was “inappropriate and irresponsible to speculate” on the cause of the crash, apparently alluding to certain rumors spreading across social media of an intentional takedown of the helicopter. One of those rumors concerned a private drone.
When asked about the drone rumor, AZDPS again stated that speculation was irresponsible and that their investigation remained active.
No gunfire came from the AZDPS helicopter.
AZDPS shared that the aircraft involved in the crash went through a maintenance check a few days before the crash. It was not considered outdated or slated for replacement.
Civilian footage of the crash showed the helicopter drop noiselessly out of the sky.
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