Election officials in the Battleground State are responding to Trump’s efforts to reshape the voting process

Jeff Bennett:

Well, late today, a federal district court once again denied the Department of Justice’s request for the state’s voter rolls for the 16th straight time.

Now Liz Landers is back with a perspective on those responsible for running our elections.

Liz Landers:

To learn more about how state election administrators are responding to the president’s speech, I’m joined now by two election officials in key battleground states, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Gabe Sterling of the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

Gentlemen, thank you for joining News Hour.

ADRIAN FUNTES (D), ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: Thank you for having us.

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager:

Happy to be here.

Liz Landers:

Secretary Fontes, I’ll start with you.

How do you respond to the President’s claim from his speech last night that nearly 280,000 noncitizens are registered to vote across the country, and the accusations that Democrats don’t care about this issue? Are you?

Adrian Fontes:

Well, I care about the issue. I don’t think the president has his facts right. I don’t think it tells the whole story.

I think his numbers are wrong. In fact, when we delved a little deeper into some of the documents, we learned that the numbers were wrong. And we have better things to do than listen to the president complain about 2020. We have an election to fight.

And I think election officials across the country realize they have work to do. We are professionals. We’ve had great elections for too long. Interesting that you never heard the president complain about what happened in 2024, did you?

And so I think, on this topic in particular, this particular president is so lacking in credibility that his comments have actually been given the weight they deserve, which is not a lot.

Liz Landers:

Gabe, the president said Georgia was one of 18 states where voter files were compromised by China, with a total of 220 million files nationwide. Is this new information and should voters be concerned?

Gabriel Sterling:

Well, no, not really, because Reality noticed exactly what he said. The first thing he said was that they bought it. They bought it because this is publicly available information.

What is the crime theory here? What will they do with him? These are things that anyone can have. They can’t change the vote. They cannot change their balance. They can’t take your vote away. None of this works.

And if you go back to the original intelligence assessment in March 2021, you will find that it is largely already in place. We know they were trying to do that. So this was of no consequence, and everything in the supporting documentation says nothing happened anywhere in 2020, 2022, 2024, and now we move to 2026.

Liz Landers:

I see Secretary Fuentes nodding in agreement with what you’re saying now, Gabe.

Secretary Fontes, you are a Democrat. Gabe, you’re a Republican. You don’t necessarily agree all the time on political issues, but you seem to agree on this one. You both seem to agree that these revelations do not change the results of the 2020 election.

Secretary Fontes, I’ll let you answer first.

Adrian Fontes:

Well, yes, that doesn’t change the results, because our elections are run by professionals who can distinguish between their duty and their opinions.

I think what’s really important here, let’s go back to the voter data question of voter rolls. We want certain parts of our voter rolls to be public, as they are public now, because that way people who know how these systems work can see who’s registered to vote, and they can go to the voting record later, and they can verify that only registered voters voted.

This is a guarantee. This is an issue of transparency. This is an access question, and it keeps us accountable. We know this, those of us who do this work. So, Gabe and the people in Georgia are doing a great job. People all over the country are doing a great job.

The problem we have is that the White House’s lies make us look terrible, and that presents a problem for our voters.

Liz Landers:

Gabe, did you hear anything in last night’s speech that makes you rethink what happened in 2020 and the certified election in Georgia?

Gabriel Sterling:

Well, of course not.

None of this is a revelation. These are all things we have all known as election officials. And I’m glad to see that the White House and the federal government are catching up with our election officials, who have been working for the last 10, 15, 20 years.

We deal with these issues every day. We’re dealing with the fact that people are trying to register and shouldn’t be trying to register. We handle existing maintenance. We handle the logic and working testing of our devices. These are ongoing things that we do. We are always improving. We are always measuring.

And last night’s stuff, here’s the real problem. I think a lot of what he said last night was true. But it was delivered in a way that made it seem hideous and terrible. He said, there are all these – they have your data. There are all these non-citizens on the registration list. What he didn’t say was that they voted.

Liz Landers:

Mr. Minister, you are in the middle of preparing for the elections now. Arizona has a primary election on Tuesday. Did anything you heard last night make you think you need to check or reconsider anything for that election next week?

Adrian Fontes:

no. I don’t think anything I heard last night would make a difference here in Arizona nor anywhere else in the country.

Gabe said it very well. There is nothing new here. There is nothing revelatory here. In fact, I think I told someone recently that I’m kind of disappointed. I was hoping to hear something new, so we could make another improvement, so we could tweak another system to benefit voters. But there is nothing new here.

I don’t think any reasonable person who understands how to see facts for what they are could give this speech last night any kind of credibility. We will continue to do what we do. We do it well. All the analyses, checks, audits and audits we have undergone for years have proven this.

And by the way, our voters love doing what they do. And in Arizona, 85% of us vote by mail. We will continue to do so whether the President of the United States likes it or not. It’s none of his business what we do in Arizona. He needs–he has a lot of other things to think about.

Liz Landers:

Gabe, last question for you.

There was mention last night in these letters and then again today from the Secretary of Homeland Security for future investigations into election officials who are not cooperating with DHS or the Department of Justice in turning over some of these voter lists. What is your response to that? Will you cooperate?

Gabriel Sterling:

As a Republican, I don’t want a central database of voters, because at some point the Democrats get to the presidency and they can say everyone can vote.

This is with regard to federalism. This is in relation to the constitution. This is about state control. As a Republican, I want my team to win the election. Every time the president brings this up, we end up doing worse in the election. Last night, when he specifically mentioned Michigan, I thought Jocelyn Benson should send him a thank you note for all the money she’ll be raising because he mentioned her state.

The Republican candidate’s situation there is worse than it was before. In Georgia, we’re a swing state, we have a Senate race, and a very close governor’s race. None of our candidates want to talk about this because it doesn’t help us get swing voters.

It’s just a crazy city. And it’s just — I hope they focus on the right things, which is making sure that states have good elections. And guess what? They have already done that. 2020 was safe. 2022 was safer. 2024 was safer and 2026 will be even safer.

Liz Landers:

Gabe Sterling from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, and Adrian Fontes from Arizona, thank you so much for your time.

Adrian Fontes:

Happy to be here.

Gabriel Sterling:

Thank you, Liz.

Adrian Fontes:

Good to talk to you, Gabe.