[ ♪♪ ] >> Coming up next on Arizona PBS on Arizona horizon, a debate between a democratic primary candidate for Arizona secretary of state and it's the first of our clean election's debates and next on Arizona horizon.

Good evening and welcome to this special election 2022 edition of Arizona horizon.

Tonight it's a debate sponsored by clean elections and your source for non-partisan official election information and tonight's debate between give and take between important offices.

Candidates will give opening statements in a randomly selected order and then later give closing statements in the opposite order.

Joining us now is Reginald bolding and we begin with opening statements and going first is Reginald Bolding.

>> Six years ago, I was one of the luckiest men in the world by marrying my wife and we have three amazing girls and one seven weeks ago.

Right now, we're at a defining moment in our period of time here in Arizona and across this country.

Elections are no longer about an exchange of ideas.

So how do you make Arizona better.

It's been how do I make sure my side wins what we've seen as Partisanship at an all-time high.

There's an opportunity with the secretary of state to ensure we're leading with the ability to make sure all people in Arizona, regardless of party, their voices are heard and safe, secure elections here in Arizona.

>> And now to Adrian fontes.

>> I lead a bipartisan team to make sure that we had one of the best elections in American history and one of the most scrutinized elections and we worked together to bring you work centers and about-tracking system and we did so in a bipartisan way to beat Donald Trump's big lie.

I'm a veteran of the United States marine corps, a father of three amazing daughters and an Arizona native and I've worked and lived all over this great state and with your help, I'll be Arizona's next secretary of state to protect democracy.

I'm Adrian Fontes and I would appreciate your support.

Reginald, what would you bring to the secretary of state?

>> My background is in and 15 years ago, I turned down a law scholarship to be a math teacher and I saw we had a state legislature that was intent on taking money from our classrooms and I used my leadership skills to run for office and I've served in the house of representatives as the top democrat.

I'll use this to make sure every classroom that has high school students that are ready for graduation, that they have the ability to get registered to vote upon graduation and and 15% of 18-year-olds are registered to vote.

>> Adrian, what would you do?

>> To make sure to have an election's procedural manual to see what rules of the game are and cut the red tape in the small business development areas of that office and the business of America is business and in Arizona, we have to make sure we take care of the business owners with registries of trademarks and make sure the notary public takes out well.

Just like clean elections, that's a source of trusted information for election administration and we have to communicate better from that office so that folks across Arizona to make sure how they can exercise their rights as they choose to.

The secretary's office is well-run now and we have to improve information technology security systems and as we've seen, some of the other systems that apply to candidates could use some improvements.

So the office specifically needs that experience to be improved.

>> What other improvements are needed or are there -- is it fine the way it's run right now?

>> One of the thing that people in Arizona are saying when we look at elected leaderred, who are they representing?

Are they representing people in the community or are they representing special interests?

The secretary of state is this charge of lobbying reporting.

We have one of the most fundamental systems in the state and important for those in Arizona to receive money from who and who is influencing their votes.

My background as a community organizer and, you know, six years ago, I started an organization that registered over 50,000 people to vote in the state of Arizona and we need to make sure that citizens in Arizona, they have the ability to not only know what office that people are running for, but what those offices are actually doing so they can hold elected officials accountable.

>> Do they not have that ability right now?

>> If you have the ability of the elected systems, you can do through that process, but for everyday Arizona, we need to make it easy to go through that process.

>> I agree with that and everyone should have the paperwork filed on time and I think when it gets to it, the procedural's manual, we need it all over the state.

These are critically important to the function of a free and fair democracy and that trusted information from places like clean elections and the secretary's office is critical.

But here is the important thing, we used to have one set of facts and we can again.

But we have to understand not just from a high level and technical level how to make it happen.

>> Does the Arizona election process need reforming, Reginald?

>> In 1991, the Arizona state legislature allowed for absentee voting by mail and we know it's one of the strongest in the nation and we've been voting by mail over 30 years and what we've seen over the last election cycle, people for Partisan gain that the vote-by-mail is not working and let me be clear, as secretary of state, just as I've done in the state legislature, I will protect people's right to vote, their freedom to vote and that's extremely important.

This office has the ability to make sure you're using your voice to stand up for democracy.

>> So reforms are needed?

>> Any system needs reforming.

If you're not trying to improve your system everyday, then you're not trying to do what's in the best interests of people in Arizona.

>> The reforms have to be listed out for folks to understand.

Were need vote centers across the United States so folks can vote anywhere and we need a tracking system like we implemented in Maricopa county.

So you get a text message when your ballot is mailed to you and returned to the election department, improving confidence that their ballot will be counted.

We also need to make sure that understanding the systems gives opportunities to expanded on the stuff we have done and not continue to go backwards.

So when we talk about reform, one of the things we could do is what Utah and Colorado has done and do we need reform?

The simple answer is yes and that reform needs to come that Arizona has had and not stepping backwards.

>> One thing that's important is that we have to provide people in Arizona with chooses we have to make sure they have free, fair and secure elections.

The reality is that while we know more than 90% of people in Arizona choose to vote by mail, that means that 10% of them don't choose to vote by mail and make sure systems are working for everybody.

I get my ballot by the mail and my wife and I walk down to the poll, drop it in, get our sticker and go about our day and systems in place to ensure that every voter here in Arizona, they know their ballot is cast secure legislature and have of courses and choices do do that.

>> You cannot have an all ballot by mail system without options.

It's clear to folks with the experience in offices that when we say all ballot by mail, we have to have an option for replacing messed up ballots, ballots that folks want to change and bring them in, turn them in and get new ballots and that's parts of the vote center system, as well.

When you understand all of the ways these systems actually work, when you have the experience to have administered elections, to have run these budgets day in and day out, that's why experience matters.

>> Yet the election that you administered had a lot of critics and folks have crying fraud and we have heard this through scores of legislation that likely who knows how far this will go.

Why do you think from voting centers to mail-in ballots to registered, why do you think so many people saw fraud in that last election?

>> Well, the same reason record Steven Richard switched from what he talked about in the campaign for county recorder to what he is saying now.

We have to be better at sharing the information about these systems that we created and let's not forget, Ted, I lead that bipartisan team 4-1 republican.

We did the RFP and it was purchased through county and we took care of the technical aspects, all of the of the budgeting aspects and the IT security aspects in the recorder's in conjunction with the party.

Those folks critic before 2020 happened have all come around because they know better now.

They've had a chance to see it.

Let me add this and not only the most highly scrutinized in American history but every liberty analysis shown from a political party, an academic or so on, it was an amazing election that we ran.

>> Reginald, people still see fraud, and how do you convince folks things were on the up and up?

>> This is one of the most important questions that you asked tonight and it's important that people in Arizona know that 2020 is behind us.

We have to have an elected leader that will look forward and ensure that everyone moving forward, that they know for sure that we have fair, safe and secure elections.

The reality is is that there's going to be people looking for Partisan gain, Partisanship.

As I mentioned at the opening, they want to make sure they can gain the system even if it means they want to tear down the system, but we have to not only speak through power, but we have to also ensure that they also what the process and procedures are and we're following to do just that.

>> Should there be more transparency in everything from ballot chain of custody to the voting of counts process and should there be more of what people are saying doesn't exist or rifed with fraud?

>> Republican, Democrat or independent, we all want safe and secure elections.

What we have to make sure that we're doing is that we have individuals who are in place and we also have systems that are in place that ensures confidence and can we improve the system?

Absolutely and bills at the legislature this passed year that have looked to improve the system and there's been bills that have been used for Partisan and political gain.

So we have to make sure we can look at what's going to help improve or system and what's for politics.

>> Well, to answer your first question, the way that we actually work towards convincing folks that the election systems are good to go and 2020 was good to go was to get out there, Democrats and republicans alike, like has been happening in many areas and really talk to the folks where they're at.

Go to the PC meetings, community meetings and face-to-face with folks and look at accusations and put the true information forward, which the county, I have to say, has done very well.

This is the kind of bipartisan work that I have already done.

We have not been in a Partisan split like so many other bodies of government.

The other thing, to answer your other question, chain of custody, every system has their hooks, but the important point is, you've got to understand the system first to determine whether or not what's complained about is an actual issue, so for the chain of custody, for example, these are clerical errors, for the most part done by folks trained just recently and they're all very, very minor errors.

And so, to improve these things, we can act a little bit better.

We can actually hire better.

We can train better.

But these are some of the specifics that you have to understand in the first place and I'm the only candidate on either side that has done this that can ask the right question.

>> How important is it to have that kind of experience when you have the attorney general saying a serious vulnerabilities in the Maricopa county vote and must be addressed and they raise questions about the 2020 election?

>> You know, what's extremely important for Arizona to know is that the secretary of state's office has a lot of different functions and the county recorder, they run lengths, the secretary of state, they oversee the process.

They certify elections.

There's a number of different functions, as I mentioned, making sure you have live reform, business filings to ensure for those entrepreneurs hook for trademarks and trade names and the ability to ensure that and we make sure we're looking at cybersecurity and it's important that you have a secretary of state that can step in at a moment's notice to help lead the state of Arizona.

You are a heartpatient away from the governor's office.

I can tell you this, I've served in the state legislature over eight years.

My colleagues selected me for four out of the eight years to serve in legislative leadership and I serve as at largest democratic caucus since 1966.

You can walk into any MBD.

I've lead the largest policies with opioid epidemics and wildfires and negotiating one of the largest that the state has seen and you need a secretary of state to step in at moment's notice and that's what I bring.

>> Horse trading at the legislature is one thing, but actually running day-to-day budgets and negotiating your own budgets and executing them and hiring people and creating the policies and the day-to-day administrative work and incredibly important and I agree with Mr. Bolding, that's incredibly important.

You have to be ready on day one, which means you have to understand the job.

And regulating elections versus administering is important.

You can't help 15 very different counties run their own elections if you don't know what they look like.

Let's not forget, I wasn't just a Maricopa county recorder.

I spent the first 100 days in the Pima county as the chief deputy.

Why?

Because the newly elected recorder knew she needed my experience to help get the vote centers which they now have, to get that ballot tracking system which voters have.

So is this important?

2024 is right around the corner.

>> Experience in the legislature and how far does that take you in a secretary of state position?

>> It is extremely important and the fact that live lead an organization that's hired hundreds of people in multiple people throughout the state of Arizona is extremely important.

Served as the managing director to within effort nonprofits in the state of Arizona and that's extremely important.

And you have to make sure that you have someone that has a breadth and depth of Arizona and understands Arizona people.

I can't think of a better person that served as an educator, organizer and bringing people together.

Over 50 lawmakers have endorsed our campaigns and we have the mayor of Flagstaff, Tempe, because they understand you have to bring people together and that's what we'll do as the next secretary of state.

>> And the legislature, obviously, you working with laws, you're a lawmaker, there at the state capitol and there that say the secretary of state's office, they say it's been politicized, unnecessarily politicized, you're a lawmaker, politician and how do you keep from politicizing the office?

>> One thing that's important is that you have to elect the next secretary of state to someone that has values, good judgment and can bring people together.

The reality is is that in 2020, if mark Finchham was our secretary of state, if he was the secretary of state, Donald Trump would have stole the election.

How to we know?

Because he told us.

This election is one of the most important elections of our lifetime.

And we cannot afford to have someone who would look out for Partisanship to sit in this row.

I'm running for secretary of state because I know I have the ability to win.

Leadership matters.

>> The ability to win.

And how important is that for democratic voters when they decide between you two?

>> Electability is the most critical part of this debate.

At the end of the day, we're looking act the health of our democracy.

Folks like me and election administrators across the country suffered death threats and had our offices all but invaded and not unlike what happened at the capitol on January 6th in some cases, with folks carrying rifles at our foot.

Experience in this area is absolutely vital and electability across the board is also exceptionally vital.

(speaking Spanish) >> And if we're going to be able to elect a Democrat in November, we've got to be able to speak to all of our communities, many of who are marginalized because they don't feel represented.

>> We heard a lot about that at the state capitol and you've been arguing for finding underserved and making sure they're registered and voting and that sort of thing.

But critics will say there's a sacrifice of accuracy when you go this direction to the point where -- I mean, there have been arguments this is voter suppression and some of the laws making their ways through the capitol and when does accuracies and voter suppression intersect?

>> First question about electability and winning, winning absolutely matters?

I've won every single won and the voters trust me and know that right now that we need a leader who will stand up and fight for them and that's extremely important.

When we talk about the bills at the legislature, make no mistake, they absolutely were intending to suppress the vote.

Whenever you're looking to take away our ballot drop boxes, that will affect the rural community, tribal nations and you're looking at suppressing the vote.

>> When does wanting more accuracy, more security become voter suppression?

>> Well, wanting more accuracy and wanting more security on a lie isn't wanting that.

It's just voter suppression with a nice package around it.

Recognizing that in the first place and being able to articulate why our elections are accountable and secure and the kind of of thing this secretary of state would do easily because I've done that.

We've already put on one of the most secure, if not one of the most accountable, elections in Arizona history.

As a matter of fact, the hand count more Maricopa county came back 100% on the first count and that was my office and the work I did to assure accountability and I will not let anybody take anything away from my team and the republicans and Democrats to make that happen.

>> One thing that is extremely important about this office, if we ever want to change the politics, the tone and rhetoric, is we have to move passed the 2020 election.

And look, it's going to be extremely important that we have setting policies and procedures in place that will allow for people in Arizona to move forward.

I know there's a lot of take that wants to go about the audit and the 2020 elections and that's only feeding the conspiracy theory.

That's own feeding to the trump mania we're seeing.

What we're going to do is use the leadership of the office, we're going to work with other stakeholders across the state to make sure we can move and improve our system so we have safe, secure elections.

>> We have to stop right there.

Good conversation and thank you both for joining us and time for closing statements and in reverse order, we start with Adrian Fontes.

>> Thank you for being careful and considerate for who will be the next chief election officer.

My experience not only as a veteran state's marine Corps.

It makes me uniquely qualified to take this office and serve well from day one.

I have the experience and I have the know-how and I can communicate clearly all of the values that we as people in Arizona share across part lines to everyone in Arizona so that we can bring ourselves together as a state and move ahead.

>> Thank you very much and now the closing statement from Reginald bolding.

>> Thank you, Ted, and AZPBS for having me.

>> I was raised by a single mother.

Her dream in life is that her three young boys would have an opportunity to do and be whatever they wanted.

And I can't help but think myself raising three young girls, that I want them to have the opportunity to do and be whatever they want.

But right now, we are facing an election and we're facing a democratic system that is looking to put Partisanship over actual individuals and fair values.

This election is critical.

We have to make sure we're fighting for fair democracy.

We can do that as republicans, Democrats and independent.

As your next secretary of state, I'll ensure we have just that and thank you to much.

>> Gentlemen, thank you, we appreciate your participation and that ends our democratic primary debate for secretary of state.

Our next debate for republican candidates for Arizona superintendent of public instruction for Monday, April 25th at 5:00 p.m. right here on Arizona horizon.

And you can watch tonight's debate online at AZpbs.org where you can watch all of Arizona horizon's previous programming.

Thank you for joining us and you have a great evening!

[ ♪♪ ]