His remarks Thursday night — which he made when a moderator asked him if he would have certified the 2020 presidential results — drew a sharp rebuke from Fondes, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, who said Finchem he had just described why it would be so dangerous for him to be charged with managing and overseeing Arizona’s election systems. “Our democracy really rests on the decisions (of) thousands of people — Republicans and Democrats — who did the work of the election. When we have conspiracy theories and lies like what Mr. Finchem just shared, that are not based on any real evidence , what we end up doing is eroding the faith we have in each other as citizens,” said Fontes, who previously served as the Maricopa County recorder. “The kind of divisiveness that’s not based on reality is not based in no element, which we have seen trumpeted by Mr. Finchem, is dangerous to America.’ Fontes was elected Maricopa County Recorder in 2016, but was defeated in his bid for re-election in 2020 after facing criticism for some of the changes he made to the county’s election systems. Finchem repeatedly criticized his performance in the recorder’s office on Thursday night. In a Quinnipiac University poll released last month, 67% of Americans said they believe the nation’s democracy is “at risk of collapsing,” up 9 points from January. As Trump considers another bid for the White House, Finchem’s close alliance with the former president has come under scrutiny because he will be tasked with managing and certifying the 2024 presidential election results in a key state won by President Joe Biden by a smaller margin. from 11,000 votes. The office he seeks is also critical in another way because in Arizona, the secretary of state is second in line to the governor. Finchem co-sponsored legislation with fellow Republican lawmakers in Arizona that would allow lawmakers to throw out election results and require election officials to count ballots by hand instead of using electronic equipment to record the results. He has also argued without evidence that early voting leads to voter fraud and has questioned whether it is constitutional. During the 30-minute debate, which was sponsored by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission and aired on Arizona PBS, Fondes, a former Marine, repeatedly tried to get Finchem to respond to some of the ideas he had proposed as a lawmaker such as limiting the ability to vote by mail. Finchem countered, arguing that the secretary of state doesn’t set policy: “The secretary of state doesn’t take away the ability of citizens to vote. That’s up to the legislature,” he said. When a moderator intervened and pressed Finchem to answer whether he wanted mail-in voting eliminated, Finchem replied, “What I want doesn’t matter.” He later allowed that he was “not interested in voting by mail. That’s why I’m going to the polls.” The Republican lawmaker said he supports “absentee voting” programs, but not programs where ballots are sent to voters who have not requested them. When one of the moderators asked Finchem if the August primary was fair, Finchem replied that he had “no idea.” When the moderator went on to ask Finchem what had changed between the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 Arizona primary, Finchem replied, “The candidates.” When asked what the federal government’s role is in the Arizona election, Finchem said he believes the federal government “needs to go away,” adding that it should be the Legislature “that calls the time, place and manner of elections, not the federal government.” Fondes tried to engage Finchem on some of his controversial associations — including being a self-proclaimed member of the far-right group known as the Oath Keepers — but the Republican lawmaker was not on board. CNN’s KFile team uncovered a series of posts by Finchem where he shared anti-government conspiracy theories, including a Pinterest account with a “Treason Watch List” (which included photos of Democratic politicians) and pins with photos of Barack Obama next to images of a man in Nazi garb. a Nazi salute. Fondes also pressed Finchem to explain what he did in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. Finchem attended the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the storming of the US Capitol — though he said he did not participate in the riot. At the time, the Arizona Republic reported posting a photo online of rioters on the Capitol steps and said the events were “what happens when the People feel they’ve been ignored and Congress refuses to recognize the rampant fraud.” Fontes accused him of participating in “a violent rebellion” that sought to “overturn the very constitution that holds this nation together.” Finchem rejected that characterization. “Mr. Fontes just engaged in total fiction, the creation of something that did not exist,” he said. “I was interviewed by the (Department of Justice) and the commission (Jan. 6) as a witness … For him to claim that I was involved in a criminal riot is absurd and frankly, it’s a lie.”
