Latest news with #AdrianFontes
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Arizona is grateful.' Hundreds attend Memorial Day ceremony at Phoenix military cemetery
The hallowed grounds of the military cemetery in Phoenix were adorned with red, white and blue on Memorial Day as hundreds of people gathered to honor Arizona veterans. The National Cemetery of Arizona was the site of a tribute attended by top state officials, including Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. The ceremony marked the 157th Memorial Day celebrated in the United States, and Hobbs proclaimed the day as Arizona Memorial Day. Memorial Day was established in honor of military members who died in service to the country. Honor guards presented an array of U.S. flags and flags for each branch of the military, carried by servicemembers from Luke Air Force Base, the Arizona Army National Guard and more. Fontes, a Marine Corps veteran, was the event's featured speaker and delivered remarks about diversity and respect for the ideals that formed the country. That includes standing against tyranny in the pursuit of freedom, the secretary of state said. He reflected on the first Americans who rejected a king in favor of a system ruled by the people. "Diversity is our strength when we recognize and acknowledge that new ideas are important," Fontes said. Part of that he said, was maintaining respect for the U.S. Constitution. "We are a people of progress. Sometimes through very bumpy roads, and sometimes through very rich resentment. But it is that ability to move and change that keeps us so strong," Fontes said. Acknowledging flags placed at each of the gravesites, Fontes said, "Every single one of those flags out there represents a different point of view, not just a separate soul." Some in the crowd perceived the speech as political and interrupted Fontes, a Democrat, with a call to speak more about veterans. Another person in the front row waved their hands in dismissal towards Fontes and left the event. Fontes turned his focus to the fallen veterans, their many stories and experiences. "We will continue to remember them all in our way... Every single one of us believes in this nation and in its promise, supported by the passing and sacrifices of those who are gone," he said. Fontes responded on social media not long after the event. "Somehow, defeating fascism is now political?" he posted. Hobbs took the stage to honor veterans who served the country and kept its values intact. She said the American values of liberty, democracy, equality and the rule of law are embodied in the nation's troops. "Whether it was defeating the evils of Nazi Germany, defending our allies against communism in the Korean War or dismantling terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, the patriotism and service of every person who put on a uniform has never wavered," Hobbs said. She also honored those who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. "Let me say loud and clear: The entire state of Arizona is grateful for their sacrifice and will forever remember what they gave for this country and our families," Hobbs said. Virgil Macklin smiled as he took a photo with Fontes, a kindred connection visible between the men. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Macklin started nearly 40 years in the service in the 1970s, a legacy continued by his granddaughter, who attended the event with him and now serves in the military. "It's all about the people that gave so much for me to be here," Macklin said. Douglas Penwell served in the U.S. Air Force for nearly 20 years, including a stint working on stealth aviation equipment. He said he knows people who died while serving the country. "The current partisan divide in our country is disgusting to me because it ignores the service of the people that went before us," Penwell said. He said he did not agree with the interruptions of Fontes' speech. "Two times in your life you don't learn anything: One, when your mouth is moving. And two, when you only listen to people that agree with you," Penwell said. The Memorial Day ceremony saw numerous musical renditions of patriotic classics like "God Bless America," the folding of the U.S. flag, the pledge of allegiance and a prayer dedicated to veterans. The music was performed by the 108th Army Band, with vocals by Steve Brining. A flyover by the Phoenix Stearman Guys, piloting three propellor planes, drew admiration from the crowd just before the Army Band performed the National Anthem. Randy Heard, director of the cemetery, extended the honor to all those buried at the cemetery, each of whom had a flag placed at their gravesite for the weekend. "We have over 109,000 veterans and family members interred here. I'm happy to report we adorned every gravesite with an American flag. This is due to the tremendous support we have from the community," said Heard. Before the memorial ended, Rick Romley, a Marine veteran and former county attorney who was the event's emcee, said after more than 10 years of hosting, the 2025 Memorial Day ceremony would be his last. Romley's final words on stage were to honor a veteran who died in service. Wounded while serving in Vietnam in 1969, Romley said he joined the service alongside his best friend, David, who died during the war. Romley named his first son after his friend. Reach reporter Rey Covarrubias Jr. at rcovarrubias@ Follow him on X, Threads and Bluesky @ReyCJrAZ. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: U.S. military cemetery in Phoenix hosts hundreds for Memorial Day
New York Times
20-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against Foreign Influence Operations
The Trump administration is targeting government officials who had been flagging foreign interference in U.S. elections, despite ongoing concerns that adversaries are stoking political and social divisions by spreading propaganda and disinformation online, current and former government officials said. The administration has already reassigned several dozen officials working on the issue at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forced out others at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, they said. The cuts have focused on people who were not only combating false content online but also working on broader safeguards to protect elections from cyberattacks or other attempts to disrupt voting systems. In last year's election, the teams tracked and publicized numerous influence operations from Russia, China and Iran to blunt their impact on unsuspecting voters. Experts are alarmed that the cuts could leave the United States defenseless against covert foreign influence operations and embolden foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt democratic governments. Arizona's secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, warned in a letter to President Trump that the cuts were comparable to shutting down the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ahead of hurricane season. 'This decision undermines Arizona's election security,' he wrote, 'at a time when our enemies around the world are using online tools to push their agendas and ideologies into our very homes.' Mr. Trump and other officials have said that in the guise of fighting misinformation and disinformation, the government had infringed on free speech rights of Americans. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at D.H.S., said that the cybersecurity agency 'is undertaking an evaluation of how it has executed its election security mission with a particular focus on any work related to mis-, dis-, and malinformation,' and that while that is continuing, personnel who had worked on those issues 'have been placed on administrative leave.' Acting on one of Mr. Trump's first executive orders, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Feb. 5 shut down a Federal Bureau of Investigation task force that had been formed after Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election and reassigned several dozen officials and agents who had been involved, the officials said. CISA has also forced out more than a dozen officials who had been monitoring foreign influence operations targeting the nation's elections. They were among the more than 130 positions eliminated in total at the agency, according to a department statement. On Friday, an internal memorandum from the agency's acting director, Bridget E. Bean, announced the suspension of funding for a program that coordinated election security on the federal, state and local levels. Even before Mr. Trump returned to the White House, Republicans on Capitol Hill had refused to renew the mandate for the State Department's Global Engagement Center, the most prominent government agency fighting propaganda from Russia and China. It shut down in December. Many of its staff of 125 have since been reassigned, while others have left or not had their contracts renewed, officials said. In recent years, many Republicans have been skeptical of warnings about disinformation campaigns. They accused Democrats of demonizing political views with which they disagreed as 'Russian propaganda,' and they viewed warnings about 'disinformation' as a way to pressure social media companies to censor speech supporting Mr. Trump's views. In one of his first major foreign policy speeches as vice president, JD Vance said that the Biden administration had 'bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.' Republican supporters of Mr. Trump had telegraphed many of the administration's steps ahead of his election. But the breadth and speed of the efforts to abolish the teams put in place to fight malign activity online have surprised those involved, including engineers at companies like Google and Meta, who have for years regularly exchanged information with government officials, including during Mr. Trump's first term. CISA has already removed a 'Rumor v. Reality' page on its website, which had provided tips to dispel disinformation about the reliability of the voting process. The internal memorandum from Ms. Bean, first reported by Wired, said that the agency would also conduct a review to correct 'any past activities identified as past misconduct by the federal government related to censorship of protected speech.' The new director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has made repeated promises to depoliticize the spy agencies. American officials briefed on her plans say that will include a review of the work done by the office's Foreign Malign Influence Center, which was established by Congress in 2022. That office, along with the F.B.I. and the cybersecurity agency, regularly disclosed foreign influence operations during last year's presidential campaign, including one from Iran that targeted Mr. Trump, which officials said was trying to prevent his re-election. Many of the officials involved with the efforts to warn the public about foreign influence campaigns at the time emphasized that the work was nonpartisan, and that they had avoided calling out Americans who amplified foreign narratives because of the right to free speech. A recent report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish research organization in Washington, credited the government effort for blunting the impact of foreign influence ahead of November's election by informing voters, for example, that numerous videos being spread online were created by Russia and showed fake people. 'The U.S. government should continue to treat foreign malign influence as a national security issue,' the report said, calling for the agencies to receive 'the proper funding to continue their work.' Instead, the new administration has followed the recommendations of Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for restructuring the federal government from which Mr. Trump sought to distance himself during the presidential campaign and has now embraced. Project 2025 called for the closing of the election security unit at CISA, as well as the F.B.I.'s task force. Republicans in Congress and several states have also waged a legal and political campaign against what they claimed was a sweeping 'censorship industrial complex' under the Biden administration. 'I think that they may have drunk their own Kool-Aid in terms of believing that there is this kind of censorship industrial complex that all these people were involved in,' Lawrence Norden, a vice president at the progressive Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said, referring to the officials now shutting down the teams. 'I'm not sure that they fully understand who everybody is and what they do.' Lance Hunter, a professor at Augusta University in Georgia, said that eliminating defenses against foreign influence campaigns would leave the United States more vulnerable to them. 'Foreign influence operations are often conducted to attempt to increase the appearance of government ineffectiveness and instability in the country,' he said. 'They are also carried out to disrupt elections and increase division and polarization in the country.' During his visit to Europe last week, however, Mr. Vance belittled the idea that a foreign adversary like Russia could sway an election in a strong democratic nation, referring to accusations that resulted in Romania overturning the first round of voting in its election. 'If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousands of dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country,' Mr. Vance said, 'then it wasn't very strong to begin with.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Happy birthday! Arizona celebrates 113 years of statehood on Valentine's Day
The Brief Friday is Valentine's Day and Arizona statehood day. On Feb. 14, 1912, President William Howard Taft signed legislation officially making Arizona the 48th U.S. state. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes will host a reception at the State Historic Capitol Rotunda. PHOENIX - Arizona is turning 113 years old on Valentine's Day. It was on Feb. 14, 1912, that President William Howard Taft's signing of legislation officially made Arizona the 48th U.S. state. Prior to statehood, Arizona had been a U.S. territory for nearly 50 years. On Friday at 9 a.m., Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes will host a reception at the State Historic Capitol Rotunda. "Arizona's journey as a state is a story of resilience, diversity, and community," Fontes said in a news release. "We welcome everyone to join us in celebrating our shared history and shaping our future." Click to open this PDF in a new window.
USA Today
31-01-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Audit: Arizona elections officials knew about citizenship tracking glitch as early as 2016
Audit: Arizona elections officials knew about citizenship tracking glitch as early as 2016 Show Caption Hide Caption Arizona officials certify 2024 general election results Secretary of State Adrian Fontes shares final vote totals for the presidential race as well as voter turnout numbers during the certification of the Nov. 5 general election on Nov. 25, 2024, in Phoenix. A citizenship tracking glitch in Arizona risks disenfranchising thousands of voters. The glitch originated from database transitions and coding errors that obscured the issuance dates of driver's licenses, impacting voters who obtained licenses before 1996. Although officials have taken steps to resolve the issue and verify citizenship for affected voters, new challenges are emerging, including a legal gap centering on U.S. nationals. The audit recommends increased communication and collaboration between state agencies to prevent similar issues in the future. A long-standing lack of communication between state offices led to a citizenship tracking glitch that risks disenfranchising thousands of voters — and other gaps may still exist in Arizona's voter registration statutes, according to a recent audit. The review, commissioned by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, found at least one instance in which elections officials came across the problem but didn't raise alarms with a state agency that could have helped fix the loophole. That incident occurred in 2016, years before the glitch was recognized in the lead-up to last year's general election. The probe also revealed a discrepancy in current state law that could allow noncitizens to register to vote under "certain narrow circumstances." The issue specifically applies to U.S. nationals, noncitizen residents of certain territories who are granted some rights and protections under federal law. Most are born in American Samoa. Hobbs' bipartisan audit team — former Coconino County Recorder Patty Hansen, a Democrat, and former Yuma County Recorder Robyn Stallworth-Pouquette, a Republican — said the number of such noncitizens residing in Arizona is "believed to be very small." Still, the findings are all but certain to send a shock wave through the swing state, which has faced an organized wave of election denialism since 2020. False claims of a stolen election made by President Donald Trump and other conservative figures have often hinged on the specter of noncitizen voting, even though evidence overwhelmingly shows it is rare. The citizenship tracking issue pertains to how the state's Motor Vehicle Division provided information to the state's voter registration database. That office is under the Arizona Department of Transportation, which reports to Hobbs. Roughly 200,000 voters statewide — most of whom lean older and are longtime Arizonans — are impacted. Those voters swore under the penalty of criminal charges that they were U.S. citizens upon registering to vote, and many have been on the voter rolls for years. But elections officials cannot determine with absolute certainty whether those in the group handed over citizenship documents as required by state law. They must now verify citizenship for the wide pool of impacted Arizonans. The issue was documented in media reports long before last year, according to the audit. ABC15 reported in October 2016 that a man who was not a citizen was able to register to vote in Maricopa County. The man told the news outlet that he attempted to register as a joke, but was shocked when he received his voter registration card in the mail. A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office said the man had exploited a loophole in the system, according to the article. The spokesperson's description of that loophole matches that of the citizenship tracking glitch. Officials also noted the man had lied on a government form in order to register, which is a felony offense. At the time, Republican Helen Purcell headed the Maricopa County Recorder's Office. Republican Michele Reagan, who is now a justice of the peace in Scottsdale's McDowell Mountain precinct, was then serving as secretary of state. Neither alerted MVD officials of the issue, according to the audit report. "No changes to interfaces or additional data were requested by the SOS or other election officials at that time," the report reads. Purcell and Reagan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings. But they line up with a preliminary report on the results of an internal review conducted by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat. That probe uncovered several records showing staff in the Secretary of State's Office had run into the citizenship tracking glitch several times during previous administrations — although it's unclear if elected officials ever were briefed. Both reports suggest that the pattern of noncommunication between the MVD, the Governor's Office, the Secretary of State's Office and county recorders continued for years under politicians of both parties. Even recently, the entities have clashed — the findings come after weeks of behind-the-scenes sparring between Hobbs and Fontes. Records show the two top state officials, who have long had a contentious relationship, haven't met in person since April 2023. The audit report states staffers with the MVD and the Secretary of State's Office currently meet monthly, but that the frequency of those meetings should be upped to weekly chats. Hansen and Stallworth-Pouquette also recommended that MVD conduct an annual training for county recorders to teach them about the agency's processes and procedures. "This audit revealed the necessity of maintaining close communication with state and county election officials," the report read. "Finding regular time to share information and build relationships between the MVD and election officials will help eliminate issues in the future." A spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office said officials were still reviewing the audit. 'Overridden': Audit unravels how glitch happened The audit shows that the tracking error originated as state agencies transitioned between various database systems. Arizonans have been required to provide citizenship documents to obtain a driver's license since 1996. Years later, voters approved a ballot measure that mandated new voters prove their citizenship to participate in state and local races. When a person signs up to vote, elections officials check motor vehicle records to see if they have already satisfied the proof of citizenship requirement. However, the MVD coded its database in a way that could change the issuance date of an Arizonan's license and indicate they had proved citizenship even if they may not have. That means someone could have gotten a driver's license before 1996 without proving their citizenship, received a duplicate one that updated the license issuance date, and then were incorrectly registered to vote a full ballot. The audit dug deep into the exact details of how that coding error occurred. It found that the issue resulted from changes to a special interface system used by elections officials to pull information from the MVD. From 2004 to 2007, the interface system allowed elections officials to send a file of new or modified voter registration records to MVD in a nightly batch. MVD officials compared the transmitted voter registration forms to their motor vehicle database and relayed a response. In 2007, the interface system changed and MVD began providing elections officials with an extract of all of its customers with driver's licenses. The information transmitted included the prior issuance dates of driver's licenses. An update file was sent nightly by the system. But whenever a new nightly filed arrived, it overwrote existing data. That eliminated elections officials' ability to determine whether a license was originally issued before 1996. "This meant that, in some cases, election officials were verifying citizenship against the wrong issuance date," the audit report read. In April 2020, MVD replaced its 1980s-era motor vehicle database with a new, cloud-based system. That necessitated a new interface system, which is still used today. It provides same data elements as the old system, including prior license issuance dates, on a "real-time, as requested basis," per the audit ― and this version of the interface doesn't overwrite previously existing information. But the prior error still allowed a group of voters to slip through the cracks. Officials initially estimated the size of the group at about 98,000 voters. Later, they revised the number up to well over 200,000. That new number resulted from a change in search parameters. Initially, MVD officials only included people who had possessed a license before 1996 and either never updated it or later received a duplicate license while searching their database to compile the list of potentially affected Arizonans. The second database search used broader parameters that included people who had similarly held a license before 1996 but later received a renewed or reinstated license. In doing so, the search identified more impacted voters. "Had the VRAZ-II system not overridden the original data, the SOS would have had the information necessary to verify pre-1996 issuance dates," the audit read. Officials continue efforts to resolve issues The Arizona Supreme Court stepped in last fall to allow affected voters to receive a full ballot for the November election. While state law dictates those who haven't proved citizenship cannot vote in state and local races, voters affected by the glitch have historically been eligible to vote a full ballot. That decision bought state and local officials time to resolve the problem. But county recorders across the state must now verify citizenship for a wide pool of impacted Arizonans before this year's jurisdictional elections. The first — an election on a proposed half-cent sales tax increase in Tucson — will be held March 11. Multiple municipalities statewide will participate in another election May 20. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office previously confirmed that recorders recently received a full list of impacted voters in their respective counties. The office worked with MVD to locate proof of citizenship for affected voters, narrowing down the list by about 20,000 people before it went out to recorders statewide. Meanwhile, Hobbs set aside $200,000 from the state's COVID-19 recovery money for the project. Counties now can request those dollars to help with the costs associated with verifying the citizenship of affected Arizonans. Documents also show top staffers at the Secretary of State's Office have discussed with county recorders proposals to manage notices to impacted voters. Some county recorders say details of that process remain in limbo. Officials have also taken steps to ensure more Arizonans won't be added to the list of impacted voters, per the audit report. At Fontes' request, MVD altered the interface system to create responses that will help elections officials flag voters with pre-1996 credentials going forward. But new challenges are quickly emerging. The audit found an additional 7,265 voters with inactive driver's licenses received before 1996. Those voters may also be impacted by the glitch. "The SOS and county recorders should decide how to proceed with this list," the audit report read. State lawmakers will also need to determine how to handle the gap in current law that could allow U.S. nationals — who are not citizens — to register to vote. MVD currently has "no practicable way" to ascertain how many U.S. nationals have an Arizona-issued driver's license, per the audit. The report notes that all voter registration forms and the state's online registration portal include "a clear disclaimer" that applicants must be citizens. Voters are required to attest to their citizenship under the penalty of perjury, meaning they can face criminal charges for lying. Contentious: Voter registration glitch sparks new conflict between Fontes, Hobbs Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at Follow her on X: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps. Follow her on Bluesky: @
