The secretary of state’s office is promoting a website newly launched this year aiming to debunk misinformation concerning Arizona elections.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who has earned a reputation for dispensing misinformation himself, launched the website, arizona.vote, earlier this year ahead of the primary election.
The secretary of state’s office also maintains social media accounts on X, Instagram, and Threads. On these three platforms, the office is posting election-related information aimed at “misinformation inoculation” as part of a new campaign.
Fontes told Capitol Media Services that some among the election systems skeptics and critics are acting based on bad intentions, and not out of genuine concern for election integrity.
“The problem is there are people out there who are motivated to sow distrust even if the little issue that might pop up is minor and easily explained,” said Fontes. “Their goal is to capitalize on mistrust. And our goal is to make sure the public is inoculated against the potential mistrust.”
Fontes’ representation of critical election-related issues has been contested and, in some cases, overruled in court.
Last month, the Maricopa County Superior Court separately ruled that Fontes’ proposed ballot language for Propositions 212 and 145 had violated the law. In both cases, the court found that Fontes’ writing would have misled voters on critical decisions impacting school choice.
The secretary of state stated that the new website offers more than just misinformation debunking, but the remainder of the content only offers links to external webpages on voter registration and verification, ballot tracking, and information on voting and election deadlines.
Since taking office, Fontes has worked to defeat narratives advanced by election skeptics and critics, mainly coming from the Republican Party.
Last month, President Donald Trump issued an address to the nation in which he announced the declassification of documents purportedly revealing “shocking vulnerabilities” opening up the nation’s election infrastructure to hacking and foreign interference. Trump also alleged that members of “the deep state” worked to suppress both public and elected official knowledge of election meddling.
These documents were released by the White House Government Transparency Task Force. In part, the document dump revealed intelligence community assessments that the interference from foreign adversaries had the potential to alter data to prevent voting, delay voting on election day, or force voters to use provisional ballots.
Fontes immediately countered with a statement defending the integrity of Arizona’s election system, and challenged the Trump administration to share what, if any, credible evidence of criminal activity or unlawful voting in Arizona it had found.
“Arizona has some of the strongest election laws in the nation,” said Fontes. “We verify voter eligibility, enforce voter identification requirements, maintain clean voter rolls, protect voters’ personal information, and conduct transparent, auditable elections in partnership with our county recorders.”
Fontes has also defended the practice of mail-in voting. A whistleblower recently alleged that USPS has begun work to implement Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting in spite of a preliminary federal injunction. Fontes filed a declaration in California’s case challenging Trump’s executive order, citing the prevalence of mail voting in the state. Approximately 80% of registered voters receive a mail ballot according to the secretary of state’s latest count.
Along with voicing his opposition to Republican-led election reforms in his official capacity, Fontes has also positioned himself within his reelection campaign as a defender of Arizona elections against skeptics and critics.
Fontes is defending his seat from his opponent, Republican lawmaker Alexander Kolodin, whose is responsible for legislation that is credited for vastly improving the election process this year.
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Pima County and the city of Tucson have entered an agreement to use nearly $1 million in federal funds to provide legal services to those facing evictions.
The council approved the initiative as part of the consent agenda during their regular meeting on Wednesday.
Up to 250 households at risk of eviction may receive legal services through Pima County’s Emergency Eviction Legal Services (EELS) as set forth by an intergovernmental agreement with Pima County. The agreement has a retroactive start date of July 1, 2026.
EELS will rely on $976,399 in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Those funds may also cover short-term financial assistance and utility assistance, with the county targeting four neighborhoods with high concentrations of manufactured housing when allocating the funds.
These HUD funds are part of a larger $11.5 million Community Development Block Grant awarded to the city of Tucson through the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE), a program launched in December 2024 under the Biden-Harris administration.
While HUD primarily marketed the PRICE program as financial assistance for manufactured housing repair and accessibility, the agency also allowed for funds to go to other services like eviction prevention, housing counseling, and planning activities for transitioning to resident-managed communities. HUD awarded a total of $225 million to 17 applicants, including the city of Tucson, in an announcement last April.
EELS began in March 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pima County Board of Supervisors ordered allocation of federal pandemic relief funds to provide free legal services to residents facing eviction.
Per its latest report covering fiscal years 2022-2023, Pima County EELS reported providing services to 6,000 households from 2021 through 2023: 2,048 residents received free legal services and 2,308 rent-assistance payments were made to landlords.
Pima County EELS exhausted its pandemic-relief funds in 2024. With the HUD grant, Pima County has replenished the EELS coffers with more federal funding of a different sort.
According to the intergovernmental agreement establishing the resurrected version of EELS, Pima County will submit a monthly invoice for reimbursement of costs containing a summary report of expenditures by budget line item.
As reported last month, the city of Phoenix is also exploring pathways to continue with their provision of free legal services to residents facing eviction. The city has so far relied on approximately $1.2 million in federal pandemic funds to pilot the Eviction Legal Services program, which is anticipated to continue through June 2027.
The city has also been distributing $3 million in emergency financial assistance since earlier this summer. Certain residents are eligible to receive up to $2,500, which may be spent on a variety of “needs” that city staff loosely define as anything from utilities, rent, and transportation to continuing education or work credentials.
Other counties currently provide similar eviction prevention services rooted in financial aid: Coconino, Gila, and Maricopa counties provide programs to provide funding help for rent and utilities.
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The U.S. national debt has surpassed $40 trillion, adding more than $2.6 trillion over the past year as federal borrowing and interest costs continue to climb.
The Joint Economic Committee released its latest Monthly Debt Update on September 8, showing the total gross national debt stood at $40.10 trillion as of September 3.
That represents an increase of $2.67 trillion from approximately $37.43 trillion one year earlier and an increase of $11.68 trillion over the past five years.
Of the current debt, approximately $32.42 trillion is held by the public, while another $7.68 trillion consists of intergovernmental debt.
Over the past year, the national debt increased at an average rate of approximately $7.35 billion per day, $306.4 million per hour, $5.11 million per minute, and $85,112 per second.
The committee calculated that the increase over the past year alone amounts to approximately $7,806 per person and $19,804 per household. The total national debt now equals approximately $117,279 per person or $297,522 per household.
If the average daily rate of debt growth recorded over the past three years continues, the committee projects the national debt will reach $41 trillion around January 16, 2027.
At that pace, the federal government would add roughly another $1 trillion to the debt every 151 days.
As of Sept 03, total gross national debt is $40.10T. Relative to 1yr ago, total gross national debt is $2.67T higher; relative to 5yrs ago, it is $11.68T higher. Over the past year, the rate of increase averaged $7.35B/day, $306.40M/hour, $5.11M/minute, or $85,111.72/second.…
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) September 8, 2026
The report also highlighted the growing cost of servicing the debt as interest rates remain substantially higher than they were several years ago.
As of August, the average interest rate on the federal government’s marketable debt stood at 3.475% compared with 3.415% one year earlier and 1.458% five years ago.
Higher rates increase the government’s borrowing costs as existing securities mature and the Treasury issues new debt.
The Congressional Budget Office forecasts net interest will account for 13.95% of federal outlays in Fiscal Year 2026, rising to 14.25% in Fiscal Year 2027, and 14.94% in Fiscal Year 2028.
The federal government also paid approximately $294.76 billion in interest to trust funds during the previous 12 months, averaging $24.56 billion per month.
Treasury notes continue to make up the largest portion of publicly held debt. As of August, approximately $16.21 trillion, or 50.02% is held in notes, while $7.25 trillion is in Treasury bills and $5.51 trillion is in bonds. Another $3.44 trillion is held in other securities.
About 33% of publicly held marketable debt is expected to mature within 12 months, according to the most recent data from the third quarter of FY26. The average maturity of the debt stood at 71 months as of June compared with 72 months a year earlier and 69 months in June 2021.
Despite the growing debt load, Treasury auctions continue to show demand for U.S. government securities. As of August, the bid-to-cover ratio stood at 2.97 for four-week Treasury bills, 2.53 for 10-year notes, and 2.39 for 30-year bonds.
A ratio of 2 or higher is generally considered an indication of strong demand.
The latest figures come as federal policymakers face the combination of a rapidly growing debt burden, elevated borrowing costs, and a significant portion of existing debt scheduled to mature in the near future.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Another campaign finance violation complaint has been filed against Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
This latest complaint concerned a $500 donation from District 14 Democrats in April. State law permits political party committees to contribute to party nominees, but not candidates. At the time of the April donation, well before the July primary, Mayes was a candidate but had not yet become the Democratic nominee.
Although Mayes ran unopposed in her primary, the complaint made the case that she could have faced a write-in candidate.
“A.R.S. § 16-645 permits qualified write-in candidates to compete in a primary election,” stated the complaint. “As a result, even an unopposed candidate has not definitively secured the nomination before the primary election because, at least in theory, a qualified write-in candidate could prevail.”
Timothy La Sota, a Phoenix attorney who filed the complaint, urged Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to respond more urgently to the allegations. La Sota stated that Fontes had taken nearly a month to provide acknowledgment of receipt of a prior complaint he filed against Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Concerning that complaint against Hobbs, filed in July, La Sota said nothing has come of it to his knowledge.
“Please take appropriate action, and in a timely fashion. On the last complaint I filed, against your political ally Katie Hobbs, you took twenty-five days simply to send an acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint,” said La Sota. “Since then I have heard nothing. I hope you act with more urgency here.”
That complaint against Hobbs accused her of illegally commingling millions in funds to subsidize her campaign.
In this recent complaint against Mayes, the attorney general was also characterized as displaying “a pattern of remarkable ignorance of basic campaign finance laws.” Supplementing this claim were two examples of refunds given to individual donors for excess contributions.
“[A]s the attorney for the State of Arizona, [she] clearly should know better,” stated the complaint. “Ms. Mayes was apparently unaware of campaign contribution limits applicable in state law to individual contributors, as she had to refund multiple excess contributions this last cycle[.]”
The complaint cited two instances of similar violations: one in the amount of $3,000, and the other in the amount of $500.
Mayes has raised more than $4.6 million this election cycle for her reelection campaign. Republican nominee Warren Petersen, her general election opponent, has raised more than $1.7 million. Petersen didn’t report receiving any contributions from political parties prior to the primary election.
Since state law requires the referral of substantiated campaign finance violations to the attorney general’s office, the complaint suggested any referral for enforcement actions be made elsewhere.
Another complaint filed against Mayes last month on a separate matter accused her, Hobbs, and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes of engaging in a straw donor scheme.
The campaigns for the three candidates enjoyed a sizable number of donations from donors who reported that they were not employed, tens of thousands of times greater in number than the unemployed donor donations received by their general election opponents across the aisle.
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A new report examining corporate ownership of Phoenix-area housing calls for restrictions on institutional homebuyers, expanded financing for local builders, and changes to federal tax policy. The report also endorses an Arizona proposal from Republican state Rep. Nick Kupper (R-LD25).
The American Economic Liberties Project’s September case study, authored by Laurel Kilgour and Allie Gross, argues that consolidation in banking and homebuilding, purchases of foreclosed properties, and the expansion of build-to-rent communities have contributed to difficulties facing prospective homeowners.
For more on the investor takeover of housing in Phoenix, read the full brief Phoenix Case Study: Single-Family Rentals, Build-to-Rent, and Undoing the Corporate Capture of Housing here: https://t.co/bQtNUr6fLX
— American Economic Liberties Project (@econliberties) September 9, 2026
The nonprofit, which advocates against concentrated corporate power, acknowledges that institutional investors did not create the housing supply shortage. Its report contends that investors capitalized on that shortage while changes in financing weakened smaller builders’ ability to compete.
The report’s focus on construction shortfalls follows earlier research covered by AZ Free News in May. The Common Sense Institute identified prolonged underbuilding after the Great Recession as a principal driver of Arizona’s housing shortage, citing annual housing permits that fell from nearly 90,000 in 2005 to approximately 12,600 in 2010 and recovered to about 45,000 by 2019. That study examined short-term rentals such as Airbnb and found no consistent statistical relationship between their growth and home-price appreciation across Arizona communities.
Before the housing crash, Arizona was building at a rapid pace:
• ~400,000 homes built from 2003–2007 After the Great Recession, construction slowed significantly: • ~211,000 homes built from 2010–2019
— Common Sense Institute Arizona (@CSInstituteAZ) April 16, 2026
Phoenix has gained prominence in the institutional rental market in recent years, appearing in Urban Institute research published in 2023. Using 2022 property records, researchers identified 33,406 single-family rental properties held by “mega” rental operators in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metropolitan area, second to Atlanta among the markets examined. The study defined those operators as investors owning more than 1,000 properties across multiple locations. However, the Urban Institute also cautioned that its data should be treated as a sample and that smaller institutional investors were incompletely captured.
A 2024 Government Accountability Office (GAO) review found that institutional investors may have contributed to increases in home prices and rents while helping stabilize neighborhoods after the financial crisis. The GAO said their effects on homeownership opportunities and tenants were less clear because of limited data and inconsistent definitions of institutional investors.
The new Phoenix report also examines build-to-rent developments, where homes are constructed for rental occupancy. Its recommendations include phased sales of institutional holdings, giving prospective owner-occupants and nonprofits an initial opportunity to purchase foreclosed homes, and reducing tax incentives for institutional rental ownership. The authors also recommend financing programs for local homebuilders and taxes intended to discourage holding undeveloped land.
In Arizona, the report endorses Kupper’s House Bill 2325, introduced in January as the “Own Something and Be Happy Act.”
I’m proud to introduce HB2325 the Own Something and Be Happy Act!
The introduced legislation would prohibit covered institutional investors from owning more than 50 single-family homes statewide, bidding during the first 60 days a home is publicly offered for sale, or making bulk purchases. Investors already exceeding the ownership limit would be barred from additional acquisitions and could voluntarily sell properties to comply.
The bill includes exemptions for affordable housing nonprofits, government housing agencies, community land trusts, qualifying homebuilders, and people or entities owning fewer than 50 single-family homes in Arizona. It would also require annual ownership disclosures to the Arizona Department of Housing. The proposed enforcement provisions would allow local prosecutors to act when the attorney general declines enforcement in a particular matter.
“When large investment firms buy up neighborhoods, families lose and prices climb,” Kupper said.
HB 2325 did not receive a hearing in the House Commerce Committee.
At the federal level, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, enacted July 11, includes restrictions on additional single-family home purchases by large institutional investors. Its definition generally covers qualifying investment entities controlling at least 350 homes, subject to exclusions.
The federal purchase restrictions take effect 180 days after enactment. The law includes exceptions for qualifying build-to-rent purchases and other transactions, and it does not require investors to sell homes purchased before enactment.
Arizona’s House delegation split 5–3 on the final version in the June 23 vote. Reps. David Schweikert (R-AZ01), Eli Crane (R-AZ02), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ05) voted against it. Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ06) and Abraham Hamadeh (R-AZ08) joined Reps. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ03), Greg Stanton (D-AZ04), and Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ07) in support. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ09) did not vote. Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) both supported the final Senate version in the June 22 vote.
President Donald Trump said that he would withhold his signature in protest over the Senate’s failure to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo identification for voting. The housing legislation became law July 11 without his signature, following the constitutional review period of 10 days, excluding Sundays, without a veto.
Arizona State Representative Walt Blackman (R-LD7) is calling on Americans to remember the courage, sacrifice, and national unity that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Blackman, a retired U.S. Army combat veteran who served for 21 years, reflected on his own experience on September 11, 2001, when he was a young Army tank commander stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.
“Some dates are remembered. Others divide history into a before and after. September 11 did both,” said Blackman.
The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people after 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes.
Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, while another struck the Pentagon. Passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers before the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Blackman said that, like millions of Americans watching the attacks unfold, he could not have known at the time how dramatically the events of that morning would reshape the country or the lives of those serving in the military.
Rep. Walt Blackman Honors Victims, First Responders and Service Members on 25th Anniversary of September 11 Calls on Americans to remember the courage and unity that followed one of the darkest days in our nation’s history
In his statement, Blackman honored those killed in the attacks as well as the firefighters, police officers, and emergency personnel who responded to the scenes in New York and the Pentagon. He also recognized the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 who resisted the hijackers.
“We remember the 2,977 innocent people whose lives were taken in New York City, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania,” Blackman said. “We honor the firefighters who climbed the stairs while others were trying to escape, the police officers and emergency personnel who ran toward danger, and the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 who fought back and sacrificed themselves to save others.”
Blackman also directed attention toward the military personnel and their families who carried the burden of the wars that followed the attacks.
“We also remember the service members and military families who carried the weight of the wars that followed,” Blackman said. “Many never returned home. Others came home carrying wounds, some visible and others unseen.”
Blackman’s own military career included six overseas deployments, with combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as service in Kosovo and Kuwait.
Twenty-five years after the attacks, Blackman said Americans should remember not only the lives lost but also the sense of unity that emerged across the country in the aftermath.
He noted that political divisions existed before September 11 and remain prevalent today, but argues that Americans put many of those differences aside following the attacks.
“America was politically divided before September 11, just as we are divided today,” said Blackman. “But when our nation was attacked, Americans came together. We did not ask whether the person standing beside us was a Republican or a Democrat. We stood together as Americans.”
Blackman said the anniversary should serve as an opportunity to remember the courage and compassion demonstrated under the aftermath of the attacks and to continue supporting first responders, veterans, and the families of those who died.
“We honor those we lost by remembering their names, supporting our first responders and veterans, standing with their families, and refusing to allow political division to outweigh our shared love of country,” said Blackman. “May God bless the families of the fallen, our first responders, our service members and the United States of America.”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
