Fontes and Kolodin split on voter ID and reporting speed as second debate turns personal

Arizona's second Secretary of State debate veered into personal attacks while drawing a clear policy split over voter identification rules and how quickly results should be reported, according to coverage from the Arizona Globe and the Arizona Mirror.

Republican Alex Kolodin told voters he would deliver election-night results. Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said that is impossible, the Arizona Mirror reported.

Kolodin argued that Arizona needs tougher voter ID, cleaner voter rolls and much faster results. Fontes said the current system is fundamentally secure, that Kolodin overstates its problems, and that some of his proposals would make voting harder, the Arizona Globe reported.

The exchanges grew heated when Kolodin repeatedly called Fontes a lawyer for the Sinaloa cartel. Fontes replied that if Kolodin repeated the line they would have a "personal problem," called it a "big fat lie," and later called it "weak sauce," the Globe reported. The Globe added that records show Fontes represented individual defendants in cartel-connected firearms cases, including Manuel Celis-Acosta in the federal Fast and Furious prosecution and Emilia Palomina-Robles in another weapons case, not the cartel as an organization.

Fontes also criticized Kolodin's legal record, highlighting his role as local counsel in the failed Arizona "Kraken" lawsuit that challenged the 2020 election. In 2023 the State Bar admonished Kolodin and placed him on 18 months of probation over that and other election cases, the Globe reported.

During the debate, Fontes' campaign ran a live fact-check site, alexlies.com, with pseudonymous contributors "krakenslayer" and "Raspberry Rosé," references to Kolodin's 2020 litigation and a 2020 traffic stop involving a Smirnoff Sparkling Raspberry Rosé can, the Globe reported.

They also sparred over Proposition 144. Kolodin promoted it as needed reform while Fontes rejected it, the Globe reported. The candidates argued about Maricopa County's finding of eight noncitizen voters on its records. Kolodin said even one is too many. Fontes said the small number undercuts claims of widespread noncitizen voting, according to the Globe.

Asked whether he would accept the results in his own race, Kolodin said he has both won and lost and tried to do both "with grace," adding, "we will win with grace." He left without speaking to reporters afterward, the Globe reported.