Adrian Fontes is the Secretary of State of Arizona, a position he has held since January 2023. A Democrat, he oversees elections, business registrations, and state records in a state where the secretary of state stands first in the line of succession to the governor. Fontes served as Maricopa County Recorder from 2017 to 2021. Earlier in his career he worked as a prosecutor in the Denver district attorney's office, the Maricopa County attorney's office, and the Arizona attorney general's office. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1992 to 1996 and holds a law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
DI has documented statements by Adrian Fontes on 2026 Midterm Elections, U.S. Politics, and Voting Rights. Read the quotations, original sources and related cases below.
Fontes opposed implementing the USPS ballot-mail requirements for the 2026 election, citing costs, delivery failures and the time needed to build a voter-enrollment system.
“These requirements impose significant financial costs on my office and threaten to disenfranchise voters in Arizona.”
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Declaration of Arizona Secretary of State Adrian FontesCase 1:26-cv-13917-IT, Document 4-5; paragraphs 17-21, pages 9-12; executed August 25 on page 30, filed August 26.
Why we used this label
He directly opposes the requirements and describes potential harm to eligible voters.
Trump's administration defends new USPS ballot-mail requirements as anti-fraud controls. Read the rule, challenges to its authority and the Supreme Court's September 14 decision leaving a temporary block in place.
