Who is Adrian Fontes? What to know about Arizona's secretary of state
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is Arizona's top election official, a role that puts him squarely in the spotlight in a critical election year.
The most recent example came Sept. 17, when Fontes was among election officials taking the lead after the discovery of a technical error in the interface between the Motor Vehicle Division and the state's voter registration system put the vote of some 98,000 Arizonans at risk in down-ballot races.
Fontes, a Democrat, has advocated allowing those voters access to a full ballot with local, state and federal races.
In his capacity as secretary of state, Fontes is also charged with certifying machines that count ballots, candidates and measures to the ballot, and the results of statewide elections.
Here's what to know about him.
Who is Adrian Fontes?
Fontes is an Arizona native. He is a United States Marine Corps veteran, who served on active duty from 1992 to 1996. He was nominated for a meritorious commission.
After his military service, Fontes graduated from the University of Denver's law school. He practiced law for 15 years before running for office in 2016. His legal career included stints as a prosecutor with the Denver District Attorney's Office and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, later leading the International Prosecution Unit at the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
He is a father to three daughters.
Which office did Fontes first run for?
Before he became secretary of state, Fontes served as the Maricopa County recorder from 2017 to 2021. He defeated 28-year incumbent Helen Purcell to become the first Democrat elected to the office in decades.
During his tenure as county recorder, Fontes eliminated the use of assigned polling centers, instead allowing polling places where voters from anywhere in the county could cast or drop off a ballot. He also worked to expand early voting options.
Seeking reelection in 2020, Fontes narrowly lost to Republican Stephen Richer. Richer, who lost his reelection bid in the GOP primary earlier this year, is currently working with Fontes to seek court guidance on the roughly 98,000 voters in limbo due to the MVD glitch.
The issue centers on some people who obtained a driver's license before 1996. That's the year the state Department of Transportation began requiring documented proof of citizenship for driver's licenses.
When voters passed a law in 2004 requiring registrants to show proof of citizenship, anyone with a pre-1996 license who was not already registered to vote should have presented proof of citizenship when they registered for the first time.
But not all did. The Motor Vehicle Division mistakenly coded its database such that the issuance date on those older licenses was updated to when the licenses were reissued. That meant those who had older driver's licenses, but later ordered a duplicate license, slipped through the cracks and essentially bypassed the proof of citizenship requirement.
In a "friendly" lawsuit, Richer requested that impacted voters be marked as limited to voting in federal races for this election. That would allow them to participate in the presidential race and congressional matchups but bar them from casting ballots in state and local contests.
Fontes, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, responded with his own proposal to the Arizona Supreme Court, arguing that impacted voters should remain eligible to cast a full ballot in November. He called the coding issue an "unintentional error" that shouldn't "disenfranchise" voters.
Richer's suit contends that "immediate clarity" is needed to ensure consistency across the state's various counties. He and Fontes have urged the Arizona Supreme Court to make a decision quickly because election officials across the state need to know whether to send impacted overseas voters a full ballot or a limited one. Election officials send those ballots earlier than others to accommodate the speed of global mail.
What does Fontes do as Arizona's secretary of state?
Fontes was first elected in 2022.
He succeeded current Arizona Gov. Kate Hobbs in the role after narrowly beating Republican rival Mark Finchem. Throughout their campaigns, Fontes and Finchem clashed over faith in Arizona's elections system following the 2020 presidential election, with Finchem falsely maintaining that Donald Trump won.
As secretary of state, Fontes serves as Arizona's top election official.
In that capacity, he influences statewide election policy through his office's Elections Procedures Manual, often called the "bible" of election administration . Building on state and federal law, it outlines procedures for everything from voter registration to early voting.
He is also first in line to serve as acting governor if the governor is not in state, or to succeed the governor in the event of death, resignation or removal from office.
Throughout his tenure, Fontes has been vocal about threats facing election officials. He has also been a staunch defender of Arizona's election system in the wake of unfounded conspiracy theories.
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