Arizona House Representative Alexander Kolodin has accused Secretary of State Adrian Fontes of disseminating false claims about former President Donald Trump. Kolodin said that these claims are being used to divert attention from Fontes’ record on voter suppression. This statement was made on the social media platform X.
“ARIZONA’S LEFTIST SECRETARY OF STATE PUSHES DISINFORMATION ABOUT 2026,” said Kolodin, State Representative from Arizona. “Fontes continues to repeat his tinfoil hat conspiracy theory about Trump “canceling the 2026 election. Adrian Fontes has devolved into little more than a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist, and his latest whopper about President Trump is sadly par for the course. His fantastical assertions are designed to distract from his own repeated failures and shortcomings, projecting onto others that which he himself is guilty of — the mass suppression and disenfranchisement of Arizona voters previously as Maricopa County Recorder and now as Secretary of State.”
In 2025, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has been at the forefront as he prepares rules for the upcoming 2026 election. He has notably revised the Elections Procedures Manual following Republican lawsuits and court rulings that struck down provisions related to certification and voter intimidation. Fontes has also defended mail voting, cautioning against partisan efforts to limit access. These actions underscore his pivotal role in determining how Arizona will conduct its 2026 election, according to reports by the Arizona Mirror.
The state of Arizona has recently encountered disputes over voter registration and ballot access, raising concerns about potential disenfranchisement. In 2024, state officials admitted to errors in citizenship verification records impacting approximately 218,000 registrants, which is about 5.3% of the electorate. However, courts later ruled that these voters could cast full ballots. The Associated Press reported that this situation highlighted how database issues can affect voting rights.
Arizona’s performance in election administration ranks near the middle nationally according to the MIT Elections Performance Index (EPI), which evaluates factors such as turnout, wait times, and rejected ballots from 2008 to 2022. In Maricopa County during 2022, average polling place wait times were reported at only three to six minutes while ensuring all misread ballots were counted, indicating relatively strong performance as noted by MIT’s EPI and Axios Phoenix.
Kolodin, a Republican representing Arizona House District 3 since his first election in 2022, is an attorney by profession. His legislative biography emphasizes his committee assignments for the 57th Legislature and his involvement in election-related bills, reflecting a focus on voting law and legal issues. According to the Arizona Legislature, he has been active in proposing measures related to election security.
