The morning after the March 22 Arizona Presidential Preference election, where some voters stood in line for over five hours to cast their ballot in the state’s version of the primary, frustrated downtown Phoenix resident Adrian Fontes made a few phone calls and was a candidate for Maricopa County Recorder by 2:00 that afternoon.
Fontes, an Arizona native from Nogales, Arizona State University alumnus and Marine Corps veteran, said he’s most inspired by the idea of democracy. According to the former prosecutor, “It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that we have a problem.”
He identifies himself as a, “firm believer in people power, volunteerism and the progressive movement.”
A volunteer for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, Fontes offers Maricopa County residents a candidate that supporters say is attracting that similar young and liberal demographic as the Vermont senator.
“I don’t know if this will be my first or last campaign, or my first of many, but every citizen should consider if public office is for them,” Fontes said. “It’s our responsibility to consider in what way we can serve.”
Downtown ASU student Kassidy McDonald said she is relieved to see local community members running for elected office.
“We need to do our part in voting and doing our own individual research about who we are electing into office and the values and ethics they stand by,” McDonald said.
Fontes said he is running as a Democratic candidate because he is a Democrat, but he thinks the position itself should be nonpartisan.
“That’s a real, live job and there are actual tasks that need to be accomplished,” Fontes said. “They don’t set policy.”
RELATED: Long lines frustrate downtown voters at Salvation Army polling station
According to Fontes, the voting issues two weeks ago were due to “complacency, incompetence, and one very strong party propping up an individual candidate.”
Aaron Johnson, who worked at the voting station on Third Street at the Salvation Army and owns Lawn Gnome Publishing, saw voters standing in line past 10 p.m. He said he supports Fontes’ endeavors after knowing the candidate for years through the downtown community.
“It’s time for a change, for someone who knows the Maricopa County better,” he said. “The world’s changed and it’s time to do something new. There have got to be ways to get more people involved in the democratic process.”
Johnson said elections for positions like the County Recorder are “more important than we realize.” He said the population generally ignores elections for smaller office seats, and that apathy and lack of understanding about the positions has become the larger problem.
“I think success of the County Recorder should be recorded by how many people have access to vote, not by who gets elected,” he said.
Contact the reporter at kelsey.hess@asu.edu.
