In a letter sent on August 15th, the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC Foundation, told Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes that they wish to conduct conversations with both of them to establish guidelines for volunteers to monitor ballot drop boxes for the 2024 election. The reception to the overture from CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp and Vice Chairman Bill Walton was described as “frosty” by AZCentral on Friday.
In the letter from CPAC, Schlapp and Walton wrote, “The purpose of our letter is not to relitigate the 2020 elections. Rather we hope to work with you to reduce voter concerns regarding election fraud and the fair and transparent administration of elections.”
They added, “The goal is to establish standards for drop box observation that our organization as well as any other interested parties on the right or left, can rely upon and reassure the public in Arizona that drop boxes are not being fraudulently used.”
“Failure to do so risks that the results of the November elections will be questioned by those who did not support the winning candidate,” they warned.
As AZCentral reports, the response from Mayes and Fontes, both Democrats and both controversially involved in the 2020 and 2022 contested elections, was unmistakably negative. The outlet reported that the two elected officials claimed the CPAC letter was not sent in good faith and accused CPAC of fueling public skepticism in the security of Arizona’s elections.
Aaron Thacker, communications director for the Fontes, told reporters, “To come out and pretend like you recognize the problem and that you want to help is so disingenuous when you’re a part of the problem.” Thacker even added that CPAC should have started by asking for forgiveness from the Democrats saying, “They need to lead with a mea culpa, not pointing fingers.”
In a statement to the Arizona Republic, Mayes indicated she would be open to working with CPAC, provided that the group made a statement conceding the Democrat talking point that it is an “indisputable fact” that the 2020 and 2022 elections in Arizona were fairly conducted.
She further indicated that she would not allow CPAC to utilize open-source data to verify the identity of people ballot monitors suspect of committing voter fraud. “I want to be extremely clear that I will not stand for any voter intimidation, and that includes using ‘open-source’ information to identify individuals using a drop box to vote,” she told AZCentral.
“With the election less than 90 days away, we have reached out to state officials in both parties. Our goal is to ensure voters have confidence in the fairness in the system. That means the voting procedures must be transparent, with checks and balances in place so that Americans can have great confidence in the actual winner.
As a part of this process, we have identified unmonitored boxes as one area that undermines people’s faith in fair elections. Hence, we have been planning on a program like this for an extended period of time for states that have failed to establish robust protocols for monitoring drop boxes. Unfortunately, many states still have not detailed a clear, transparent and effective process to address the vulnerabilities of unmonitored drop boxes.”
Speaking to WaPo, Fontes claimed, “The whole thing is an absurd sham to cover up direct efforts to intimidate voters by a bunch of CPAC-recruited vigilantes to intimidate voters — and we absolutely will not be cooperating with them.”
Schlapp concluded, “We hope every person who has a lawful right to vote will have confidence their vote will be counted and protected. Every illegitimate vote – unlawful for a myriad of reasons including voting more than once, voting by those in the U.S. illegally, or votes of deceased persons somehow making it to the ballot box – violates the principle of one person, one legal vote. CPAC is committed to playing a responsible role in making certain all legal citizens have the chance to vote — no matter who they want to vote for – and have it count equally.”
As previously reported by AZ Free News, Democrats have expressed concerns after the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) prevailed in court with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Ryan-Touhill ruling the 2023 Elections Procedures Manual unconstitutional. The ruling has effectively cleared the way for CPAC’s monitoring efforts, constrained only by the existing 75ft. exclusion area in Arizona statute.
On Friday, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AZFEC) filed a lawsuit against the State of Arizona, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and the ‘Make Elections Fair’ political committee. The group is challenging the initiative to place open primaries, ranked choice voting, and the elimination of public funding in partisan elections on the November ballot as a single item. The AZFEC, along with three co-plaintiffs, is contesting the constitutionality of The Make Elections Fair Arizona Act, on the basis that it violates the Arizona Constitution’s “Separate Amendment Rule,” which prohibits multiple constitutional amendments from being combined into a single ballot measure.
In a press release, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club explained, “If placed on the ballot and approved by voters, the Make Elections Fair Arizona Act would radically change how Arizonans select and approve candidates for public office, essentially copying the California voting system.”
Broken down under the premise of the “Separate Amendment Rule,” the Make Elections Fair Arizona Act constitutes twelve separate amendments according to the AZFEC. The act touches three disparate areas of Arizona election law, directly amends four different sections of the Arizona Constitution, and adds an entirely new section, whole cloth.
🚨 BREAKING: We just filed a lawsuit against the Make Elections Fair Arizona Act (which would essentially copy the California voting system) because it contains multiple separate constitutional amendments in violation of the Arizona Constitution. 🧵https://t.co/SZdu3h3aRV
— Arizona Free Enterprise Club (@azfec) July 26, 2024
Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club said in the release, “In their rush to undermine the will of Arizona voters for future elections, the special interests that drafted this measure ignored our laws and our Constitution. This egregious disregard for law and order exudes arrogance from these parties and should disqualify their measure from the November ballot.”
In the text of AZFEC’s complaint, attorneys for the organization cited, “Article XXI, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution, which states that “[i]f more than one proposed amendment is submitted at any election, the proposed amendments shall be submitted in such a manner that the electors may vote for or against such proposed amendments separately.” They added that, in past precedence, the Arizona Supreme Court has upheld that “the purpose of the single-subject rule is to eliminate the ‘pernicious practice of “log-rolling,'” whereby voters are ‘forced, in order to secure the enactment of the proposition which [they] consider[] the most important, to vote for others of which [they] disapprove[],’” the process of packaging a proposition the voters might support with others they may not.
As detailed in the release, even the drafter’s website readily acknowledged that the initiative included multiple amendments in the no longer online section: “Initiative Language” by presenting the amendments in four distinct categories in a format showing each issue as a “Current Problem” and a solution labeled “MAKE IT FAIR.”
ARIZONA FREE ENTERPRISE CLUB V. STATE OF ARIZONA and ADRIAN FONTES §104 ( About Page, MAKE ELECTIONS FAIR ARIZONA, https://www.makeelectionsfairaz.com/about (last visited July 24, 2024).ARIZONA FREE ENTERPRISE CLUB V. STATE OF ARIZONA and ADRIAN FONTES §104 ( About Page, MAKE ELECTIONS FAIR ARIZONA, https://www.makeelectionsfairaz.com/about (last visited July 24, 2024).
In the complaint, the plaintiffs appeal for relief in the form of a declaration from the court that the initiative is in violation of the Arizona State Constitution, and a request for a mandamus order to compel Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to carry out his “nondiscretionary duty to comply with the Separate Amendment Rule set forth in Article XXI, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution.”
As reported by the Arizona Mirror, the Make Elections Fair Arizona Act has already been the subject of a legal battle between the Make Elections Fair Arizona political action committee and Arizona Legislative leaders, House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen, regarding the descriptive language of the initiative on the November 2024 ballot.
The description in question reads, in part, that the proposition, “would amend the Arizona Constitution to: 1. Allow for the use of voter rankings at all elections held in this state to determine which candidate received the highest number of legal votes,” continuing to break down the revisions to the primary election and general election procedures.
Attorneys for the PAC complain in the lawsuit, “By beginning with the changes the Initiative permits regarding the use of voter rankings, the adopted analysis improperly amplifies those permitted changes and improperly understates the Initiative’s required changes to the primary-election procedures.” They suggest that this is misleading.
A glitch in the state’s voter registration system resulted in dozens of voters, potentially more, to have their party preference switched to independent.
In an email last week to county recorders, first reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, the secretary of state’s office said that at least 65 voters’ registrations were switched to independent because they wrote “party” after “Republican” or “Democratic.”
“We are currently investigating an issue where EZ Voter transactions party preferences as of 1/17/2024 are now containing the word ‘Party’ at the end of the party preference value,” said the office. “As a result, the current AVID system may set an EZ Voter party preference to ‘Other’ by default instead of one of the designated party preferences. This is currently impacting all recognized party preference values.”
AVID — the Access Voter Information Database system — somehow began interpreting certain Republican and Democratic voter registrations as “other,” meaning “independent.” Of note, the secretary of state’s office used only Republicans as an example of affected voters in their email.
“[W]hen processing an EZ Voter registration the party may be marked as ‘Other’ and ‘Republican Party’ is written in. This example record would need to have the party preference marked as ‘Republican,’” said the office.
The secretary of state’s office explained in a follow-up email that they would provide county officials with lists of the affected voter registration records.
Some voters reported on social media that they ran into issues with verifying their voter registration in the days following the email alerting counties to the AVID issue.
BREAKING: The Arizona Secretary of State has reported a "glitch" that is currently flipping Republican voter registrations to Independent ahead of the Republican primary election. And, @Adrian_Fontes and @MaricopaVote sites will not allow you to check your status at this time. pic.twitter.com/7qbJJ9d2Ul
The deadline for voter registration is in less than 30 days, and only those registered with a party may vote in the primary election. Independents have until Feb. 20 to update their party preference.
Although the secretary of state’s office notified county recorders of the glitch, they didn’t notify the public. On the day they emailed the county recorders, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ account made no mention of the glitch. Instead, Fontes highlighted a local advocacy group, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Arizona, for hosting him.
Today I spoke at the Lutheran Day at the Legislature, organized by the Luteran Advocacy Ministry of Arizona (LAMA). I appreciate faith-based organizations, like LAMA, who feel the importance of being involved in political and social advocacy. pic.twitter.com/mz06rk8QZo
Fontes also made no mention of the glitch in a Tuesday interview with Arizona Horizon. Rather, Fontes took the time to focus on addressing election misinformation, rehashing the recent No Labels Party court ruling, and advocating for treating election threats as domestic terrorism.
However, Fontes did briefly mention the lack of competence in current election workers.
“We’re having a tough time ensuring everyone is sufficiently trained and equipped to get the elections done that need to be done for our voters,” said Fontes.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The No Labels Party argued for a federal injunction against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in a court hearing on Friday.
Arizona District Court Judge John Tuchi heard Friday’s arguments from the party, which seeks to stop Fontes from putting non-presidential candidates under its label on this year’s primary and general election ballots.
The No Labels Party of Arizona, in a Thursday filing preceding the hearing, declared that their party was established for the purpose of placing only presidential and vice-presidential nominees on the 2024 general election ballot. The party cited its constitution and bylaws, which declared that the party would nominate only presidential and vice-presidential candidates, and no candidates for any state, county, municipal, school, or district office or position.
“No Labels Arizona asserts, and for the purposes of this litigation the Secretary does not contest, that No Labels Arizona’s only current objective is to ensure that Arizonans have a potential presidential candidate option other than the candidates who may be selected at the 2024 Democratic and Republican National Conventions,” stated the filing.
Fontes said in a letter to the party last September that any candidates of a valid political party had a right to participate in the primary election and determine that party’s nominee.
There are five individuals who filed interest to run under the No Labels Arizona banner, none of which relate to the presidency: Tyson Draper for Senate; Richard Grayson for the Arizona Corporation Commission; Omar Farooq Chaudry for Congress in the fifth district; Michael Bishop for state representative in the fifth district; and Sam Huang for state representative in the twelfth district.
As of October — the latest update offered by the secretary of state — there were just under 19,000 registered No Labels voters. There were over 1.45 million independent voters, over 1.44 million Republican voters, over 1.2 million Democratic voters, and over 33,700 Libertarian voters.
In their complaint, filed last October, the No Labels Party of Arizona argued that they reserved the right to deny nominations of candidates to the ballot based on state law and the Constitution.
No Labels Arizona state committee members include Gail Koshland Wachtel, a former University of Arizona professor who has donated over $242,000 exclusively to Democratic candidates, campaigns, and organizations over the last decade; Joel (Joe) Smyth, the former longtime board chair of Independent Newsmedia, with outlets across Arizona including Daily Independent, as well as outlets in Delaware, Florida, and Maryland; and Sentari Minor, vice president of strategy for evolvedMD.
Koshland Wachtel also served as the president and director of the Koshland Foundation, a California-based grantmaking nonprofit largely focused on reforming Oakland, California schools which boasted over $2.7 million in revenue and over $11 million in assets in 2022.
No Labels Arizona has yet to receive or submit any campaign contributions, and noted in its communications with Fontes that it doesn’t plan to do so in the future. Its national affiliate, based in D.C., was established in 2009.
The party has ballot access in 13 states as of Friday: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, and Utah, in addition to Arizona.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Foothills Library plans to host a “He/She/They: Why Pronouns Matter” event next week with funding from the Arizona State Library and Arizona Humanities.
The Arizona State Library is a division of Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ office; Arizona Humanities is a nonprofit affiliate of the independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
According to the event summary, the pronouns lecture will focus on defining pronouns, the relations between pronouns and gender identity, and explaining various gender identities. The library rated the event as for adults on their events calendar.
The event is one in a series of “FRANK Talks,” produced in partnership with Arizona Humanities and the Arizona State Library.
There are 14 FRANK Talks topics across categories of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI); Civics; Education; and Environment. “He/She/They: Why Pronouns Matter” is categorized as a DEI topic, along with:
“Decolonizing Beauty: Who is Considered Beautiful?”: a critique of the privileges and advantages given to “Western standards of beauty” defined as “blondness, fairness, blue-eyes, and slender figures (in women).”
“What Does Language Tell Us About Society?”: how to ensure respect and inclusivity in language related to social categories of gender and race.
“Jocks and Nerds: Stereotypes in Our Everyday Lives”: how to recognize and prevent the stereotypes that lead to both conscious and unconscious, or implicit, biases.
“The Road to Inequity: Understanding the Wealth Gap”: a historical review of federal policies and discriminatory practices, such as redlining and the “current gender wage gap,” that persist today in the form of social and economic inequities, and how to practice equity (not equality) to counter those systems.
“Then and Now: What is White Nationalism?” (virtual only): defining and identifying modern white nationalism, or white supremacy, groups and individuals.
“What Happens When Social Movements and Social Justice Collide?” (virtual only): discussing the importance of social justice movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM), LGBTQ+, and #MeToo, as well as concepts like intersectionality.
The speaker for next week’s pronouns lecture is listed as FRANK Talks host Erick Tanchez. Tanchez is a self-described “Queer Xicano” that identifies both as a “he” and a “they.” Tanchez has served as a program specialist for Maricopa County Community Colleges and president of Equality Maricopa.
.@mesacc’s Erick Tanchez shares a special graduation message on behalf of Equality Maricopa. Congratulations Class of 2020, continue to follow your dreams and lead with love! pic.twitter.com/8e6G9sUO7L
— Maricopa Community Colleges (@mcccd) June 13, 2020
Tanchez is an Arizona State University (ASU) alumni, where he served as the executive director of CollegetownUSA@ASU, the college program of the national anti-gun and social justice group, Anytown USA.
Tanchez also hosts speeches for the FRANK Talks topic “Undocumented Americans: Who Gets to Go to College?”, in which he advocates for the equal treatment of illegal immigrants in college admissions.
The other FRANK Talk speakers are Kaari Aubrey, founder of a LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-only digital publishing company and former teacher; Andrea Christelle, vice provost for research at the Navajo Nation’s Diné College, founder of Philosophy in the Public Interest at Northern Arizona University; Derek Keith, a senior project manager at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Learning Enterprise responsible for internal DEI committees and trainings, and a former California educator who incorporated diversity and social justice into curriculum through courses like Social Justice literature; Mathew Nevarez, board member for the Alhambra Elementary School, alumni of AZ Leading For Change Fellowship; Gail Rhodes, PhD student and adjunct professor at ASU, former reporter for Fox Sports Network; Matthew C. Whitaker, founder of the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy; and R.J. Shannon, a community activist with involvement including the founding of Healing Racism, former board membership for the Arizona ACLU, chairmanship and state liaisonship of the local committee for the anti-gun group Moms Demand Action, and planner for an indigenous LGBTQ+ conference.
On Wednesday, Arizona Humanities also hosted “The Art of Drag,” featuring Arizona State University (ASU) English professor and Drag Story Hour president David Boyles to discuss the history of drag and the experiences of modern drag performers.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
