Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes slammed President Donald Trump for attempting a “federal takeover” of mail-in voting.
The Trump administration is seeking the Supreme Court’s approval to tighten rules for mail-in ballots ahead of the pivotal November midterm election.
“This is a federal takeover of a constitutional duty that the states have, not the White House,” Fontes said in a video on X. “As long as I'm the Secretary of State, I'm going to protect the rule of law and the Constitution, and I'm going to protect your right to vote by mail."
States administer federal elections, but Trump has sought to expand federal control over voting in his second term through executive orders and by urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act.
The Trump
administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on July 27 after the Republican president’s executive order to curtail mail-in voting was blocked by lower courts.
Twenty-three states, including Arizona, challenged the March order in court. As a result, the administration was thwarted from creating a federal list of eligible voters and limiting delivery of mail ballots only to people on that list in nearly half the states.
A federal judge in June said key parts of the order were unconstitutional and ruled that those components could not be enforced in states challenging the order.
A month later, anappeals court rejected the Trump administration’s argument that the lawsuit was premature until the order was fully implemented.
Fontes, a Democrat, called the Trump administration’s latest appeal to the Supreme Court “another attempt to try to pick their own voters and thwart our ability to vote by mail.”
Any change to mail-in voting could mark a major shift for Arizona, a battleground state where the majority of voters cast their ballots by mail.
“Trump has lost in court after court on this issue. He’ll lose at the Supreme Court too,” Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said on X.
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fontes slams Trump for attempting 'federal takeover' of mail-in voting
