- Oct 17, 2011
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On a glorious spring day in Phoenix, in an atrium beneath the majestic cupola of the old state capitol, the secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, is celebrating Arizona’s 112th birthday.
There is only one discordant note on this otherwise joyous day: Why is Arizona’s chief election administrator, responsible for the smooth operation of November’s presidential election, in need of a bodyguard?
Until 2020, election officials were the largely anonymous folk who did the important yet unseen work of making democracy run smoothly.
“Nobody knew who we were, what we did,” Fontes said ruefully. “It’s a little bit different now.”
No longer faceless bureaucrats, they had become public enemy No 1.
Specialists from the Department of Homeland Security have been deployed to advise counties on physical and cyber security. Active-shooter drills have been rehearsed at polling stations.
As the Washington Post reported, kits containing tourniquets to staunch bleeding, hammers for breaking glass windows and door-blocking devices have been distributed to county election offices. “These are not things we would ever want to train anybody on,” Fontes said. “But given the environment … ”
[Despite Kari Lake and other election deniers losing and re-losing in AZ] If anything, the debate around stolen elections has intensified. “New political careers have been created out of it. A whole industry and infrastructure now exists to make sure that it perpetuates itself,” said Stephen Richer, the Republican recorder of Maricopa county tasked with maintaining the voter files of 2.6 million citizens.
Of the first 13 cases prosecuted by the election threats taskforce, the unit set up within the US justice department in 2021 to protect election officials from the attacks unleashed by Trump, by far the largest number – five – relate to Arizona. Two of those involved death threats against Fontes’s office, including a bomb threat.
--
Recent bills proposed by far-right lawmakers include:
Who needs evidence when you are a loser and sore about it?
There is only one discordant note on this otherwise joyous day: Why is Arizona’s chief election administrator, responsible for the smooth operation of November’s presidential election, in need of a bodyguard?
Until 2020, election officials were the largely anonymous folk who did the important yet unseen work of making democracy run smoothly.
“Nobody knew who we were, what we did,” Fontes said ruefully. “It’s a little bit different now.”
No longer faceless bureaucrats, they had become public enemy No 1.
Specialists from the Department of Homeland Security have been deployed to advise counties on physical and cyber security. Active-shooter drills have been rehearsed at polling stations.
As the Washington Post reported, kits containing tourniquets to staunch bleeding, hammers for breaking glass windows and door-blocking devices have been distributed to county election offices. “These are not things we would ever want to train anybody on,” Fontes said. “But given the environment … ”
[Despite Kari Lake and other election deniers losing and re-losing in AZ] If anything, the debate around stolen elections has intensified. “New political careers have been created out of it. A whole industry and infrastructure now exists to make sure that it perpetuates itself,” said Stephen Richer, the Republican recorder of Maricopa county tasked with maintaining the voter files of 2.6 million citizens.
Of the first 13 cases prosecuted by the election threats taskforce, the unit set up within the US justice department in 2021 to protect election officials from the attacks unleashed by Trump, by far the largest number – five – relate to Arizona. Two of those involved death threats against Fontes’s office, including a bomb threat.
--
Recent bills proposed by far-right lawmakers include:
- House bill (HB) 2472, which would make it easier to challenge election results in court, removing legal hurdles that led to Lake and Hamadeh’s lawsuits being dismissed for lack of evidence;
Who needs evidence when you are a loser and sore about it?
