Fontes, Kolodin spar over mail-in voting in final debate

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(The Center Square) - Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and State Rep. Alex Kolodin, R-Fountain Hills, clashed over voting by mail in their final debate before the general election.

On Wednesday evening, the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission hosted Fontes and Kolodin for their second debate, a week before early voting starts in Arizona on Oct. 7.

Arizona voters on Nov. 3 will vote on Proposition 144, a proposed constitutional amendment that states only American citizens can register to vote. Arizona law already requires this, but the proposition would add the requirement to the state Constitution.  

The proposition would also require people to have government-issued identification before voting, including people voting by mail. Current Arizona law doesn’t require a voter ID to cast an absentee or mail-in ballot. Proposition 144 adds that requirement for mail-in or absentee ballots.

In Arizona, an estimated 80% of voters vote by mail, according to the state government.

Kolodin, who sponsored Proposition 144 in the Legislature, said the proposition will make “voting easier for all Arizonans” and provide faster election results.

Fontes called it “nonsense” that Proposition 144 is making it easier for Arizonans to vote.

Proposition 144 will prevent Arizonans from voting by mail, Fontes said.

Kolodin called Fontes' claim a lie.

As secretary of state, Fontes said he has protected Arizonans’ right to vote by mail, including implementing a statewide ballot tracking system where voters can check the status of their ballot.

Arizonans enjoy voting in numerous ways, Kolodin explained. He highlighted his time in the state Legislature, where he said he attempted to make voting methods work better for Arizonans, including mail-in voting.

Fontes said Kolodin sponsored bills in previous state Legislative sessions to try to eliminate mail-in voting in Arizona.

Last year, the Trump administration made three requests to view Arizona’s unredacted statewide voter registration list. However, Fontes denied those requests.  

Fontes said he denied the federal requests because it was illegal, noting that doing so would have made him violate state law by handing over unredacted versions of the state’s voter rolls.

The Trump administration sued Arizona after Fontes would not hand over information about its unredacted statewide voter registration list. A federal court judge dismissed the case in April.

Kolodin said he would not give this information to the Trump administration. Instead, he said he “would license the SAVE system from the [federal government]” in a way that allowed the state to keep “that information in-house in Arizona, but still managed to check [the state’s] voter rolls for non-citizens.”  

The SAVE system is a federal online verification service that allows states and local governments to check people’s citizenship and immigration status.

Kolodin said the Arizona secretary of state is responsible for ensuring noncitizens are not on the voter rolls, which he said is not currently happening. He cited the eight noncitizens found on Maricopa County’s voter rolls.

This week, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said her office identified eight noncitizens who voted in Arizona elections between 2012 and 2025. Her office did not announce criminal charges against the individuals.

Kolodin said there is a likelihood that more noncitizens are on Arizona’s voter rolls than the state knows, based on a limited sample of 61,000 Maricopa County voters run through the SAVE system.

Kolodin said one noncitizen voting is “too many.”

“Every time an unlawful vote is cast. It dilutes the lawful votes of Arizonans. That is unacceptable,” he noted.

Fontes said he has never advocated for noncitizens to vote in Arizona elections, adding that he has ensured IDs are checked at polling places and has cleaned up Arizona’s voter rolls.

In the past, Arizona has not finalized its election results until days or weeks after the elections.

Kolodin said if he becomes the next secretary of state, Arizona would have election results complete on election night. Arizona’s elections will go from a “national embarrassment to a national model,” he added.

Fontes said Arizona “can get quicker results, but never final results on election night.”