PHOENIX, Arizona – A group of leading election fraud deniers spoke at an event in downtown Phoenix put on by the civic organization Arizona Talks. The forum was moderated by Steve Goldstein, a longtime PBS host who recently moved on to join Save Democracy AZ, which is pushing open primaries. The panelists consisted of failed Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Jackie Salit, president of Independent Voting.
Goldstein said he supports rank-choice voting. He said since the Arizona Legislature isn’t getting the reforms passed that he wants, he recommends a version of ranked-choice voting to select legislators and members of Congress since he said their seats are gerrymandered — that picks the top two for those offices. He complained that members of the two parties no longer cross the aisle to vote with the other side, implying that the Republicans in the legislature aren’t compromising as much as they used to. The 2023 legislature is one of the most conservative in recent years, with several brand-new legislators scoring at the top of conservative ratings.
Salit said, “There is something wrong with partisanship driving the system.” She expressed her support for open primaries to help independents. She claimed it will “help us move beyond division, polarization, and partisanship.”
Richer said, “I am the best recent recorder in recent history.” He admitted that “Maricopa County is going to be the center of the political universe” in 2024. However, he failed to acknowledge that is because many people around the country believe it is a hotspot for election fraud.
Richer advocated for two positions counter to the other panelists, which he has brought up before. He said “when you’re thinking about defending democracy,” talk to people from varying views. He said the delay in tabulating results after an election needs to be fixed so people don’t become suspicious as the counting goes on for days. He said the early ballot system needs reform so a barrage of ballots isn’t dumped off on Election Day.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes praised “an energetic leader who can create almost a cult-like following in politics. That’s not always a bad thing.”
He explained, “This is someone who can bring folks together, even if it’s only on one side of the aisle, and make it so that that party gains power and moves in a forward direction for our leadership. As human beings, it’s part of our narrative, we can look at as examples that we’ve built in different parts of the world. Much of it will not necessarily have happened without strong leadership.”
At the same time, Fontes attacked Donald Trump. “I think Donald Trump, for all his flaws, is a really, really good messenger, that I think a lot of folks in this room don’t necessarily like that notion. And that’s okay. You don’t have to agree with the assertion because you can disagree with the numbers. You can disagree with the fact that there are so many people in the United States of America who will follow this guy off the edge of a cliff. That’s the messenger and the message, because there’s no substance there. There’s no real issues there. There’s no real values that are based on anything that we can grab onto and find value as thinking people that doesn’t exist.”
He said, “People are scared to death we could lose our democracy.” He said he was concerned that the Democrats are “bad at messaging,” and “absolutely the worst,” citing losing middle America and labor voters.
Yang said he “dodged a Kari Lake-sized bullet” recently but did not explain what he meant. He said people asked him why he was in Arizona, so he may have been referring to almost running into Lake, who, due to her background in media, asks politicians tough questions.
Yang said he was in Arizona because it is “ground zero for American democracy and Western civilization. He warned that the 2024 election in Arizona could result in “a dark, authoritarian government.”
He blamed social media for inflaming problems and asked, “How much would it cost to fix social media? You know, like Elon bought Twitter for $44 billion, and then proceeded to f*** it up.” He added, “How much would it cost to fix media and journalism?” He said it took $6 million to change to ranked-choice voting in Alaska, gloating about how it defeated Sarah Palin and a “Looney Tune named Kelly Chewbacca.”
Yang said that Joe Biden is not “the right candidate for 2024.”
The former presidential candidate added, “There are a lot of Democrats who agree with that sentiment, but will not say it out loud because if it told me it’s like very, very bad for your career, so let’s all pretend that the 81-year old with a 39 percent approval rating is a good idea.”
Salit said that independents since 2008 have influenced the results of both presidential primaries and general elections. However, she admitted that they are split exactly down the middle between Trump and Biden in Arizona.
Goldstein said that only 10 to 20 percent of the population believes the “disinformation and misinformation,” referring to those concerned about election fraud. Yang said it was about 15 percent and said that due to the two-party system, it’s made it more like 50 percent, with half the population with the Democrats on the issue and the other half with the Republicans.
Fontes concluded his remarks by acknowledging that the U.S. has the longest-running government in the world and that most changes in other countries’ governments have moved towards the U.S.’s form of government. He admitted that people tell him they think he must be a Republican.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
