Adrian Fontes, the Democrat candidate for Secretary of State in Arizona, was accused of involvement in voting irregularities in Arizona in 2018, when he was the Maricopa County recorder.
In 2018 FOX News reported that Fontes was “at the center of a contentious vote-count procedure in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, where Democrat Kyrsten Sinema suddenly took a lead over Republican Martha McSally, thanks to votes mostly in Maricopa County.”
The Arizona Republican Party objected to several issues that occurred under Fontes during the Sinema/McSally election: One dealt with when absentee ballots were dropped off and how signatures were confirmed, and others dealt with Fontes “opening emergency voting centers the weekend before Tuesday’s election and … mixing disputed ballots with valid ones.”
Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Line said at the time, “Adrian Fontes intentionally put himself above the law and the judicial process. Such a man cannot be trusted to administer elections in Arizona. We are reviewing all legal options at this time and will continue to protect the rights of every legal voter in Arizona.”
Fontes, an attorney, also received attention for having defended the straw purchaser involved in the Obama Administration’s Operation Fast and Furious. He represented Manuel Celis-Acosta, the alleged ringleader in Fast and Furious who “transferred around 2,000 weapons to the Sinaloa Cartel, including those that were allegedly used to kill Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.”
On December 2. 2012, Tucson.com noted Fontes complaining that a U.S. Congressional probe into the Fast and Furious smuggling operation made things difficult on his client.
Fontes said, “At this stage in the game, how do you think my client can be fairly tried given the exposure and details?”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History, with a is focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.