Fontes defies Department of Justice over Arizona voter database dispute

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is being sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to share the state’s voter database with the Trump Administration.

By failing to produce these records, the DOJ said he is violating federal law. Secretary Fontes meanwhile said he’s prepared to be locked up if that’s what it takes to protect the privacy of Arizona voters. Secretary Fontes joined “Arizona Horizon” to the dispute.

“It violates state law. It’s a class six felony to hand over some of the information that they have specifically been asking for,” Secretary Fontes said. “No administration in the history of the republic has made this kind of request.”

Secretary Fontes emphasized how he is tasked with keeping every Arizonan’s information safe, including birthday, social security numbers, travel ID numbers, mother’s maiden name, etc.

“They’re just not entitled to it,” Secretary Fontes said. “So I’m not gonna give it up.”

The Justice Department is reportedly requesting this information to ensure those who are voting are truly registered to vote and should be voting.

“Their justifications have been shifting and moving throughout the entire process of conversations that we’ve had with them,” Secretary Fontes said, “so we don’t know what their real motive is.”

Secretary Fontes explained the federal statutes the Justice Department claims it has authority under only regulate the election process, not individual voter records. He said they need to make sure they are following the process part of the law, while individual records are under the purview of the states.

“What they’re doing is they’re invading into the state territory,” Secretary Fontes said, “State legal territory, state election administration territory that they don’t have any business in, and so we’re just not gonna give the information up.”

Online voter registration, registration at the motor vehicle division and the shifting and changing of voter rolls are all important aspects in how Secretary Fontes and his colleagues operate, he said.

“Because I don’t trust them, and I have good reason not to trust them,” he said, “I’m not gonna give up Arizonans’ personal identifying information, particularly to a group of folks whom we know don’t know how to keep data secure,” referring to an incident that put nearly 300 million Americans’ social security data at risk as it was displayed on an unsecured server.

“This is amateur hour, and I’m not gonna put our voter records out there for anybody to get ahold of,” Fontes said.