PHOENIX — A state lawmaker who wants to be the state’s chief elections officer refused to say Monday whether he believes President Trump is acting illegally in telling states they have to demand proof of citizenship from all voters.
In a news conference to announce his candidacy, Alexander Kolodin promised transparency if he is elected secretary of state in 2026. And he accused incumbent Democrat Adrian Fontes of ignoring election laws.
But he would not address whether a federal law created by Congress, which allows for voting in federal elections without such proof, precludes what the president has ordered. Instead, he turned the issue into a criticism of Fontes for problems that resulted last election when questions were raised about who had, and had not, provided such citizenship proof.
Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin announces his bid Monday for secretary of state.
Kolodin, who said in his speech his campaign was about “rebuilding trust’’ in the election system, also sidestepped a question about whether Republicans, who raised claims of election fraud in several past elections, were responsible for that lack of trust.
Yet Kolodin, an attorney, was placed on probation by the State Bar of Arizona for filing a series of lawsuits challenging the 2020 election, after a federal judge in one of those cases tossed the case saying that “gossip and innuendo cannot substitute for earnest pleadings and procedure.’’
He had filed another unrelated lawsuit in connection with that election alleging that the use of Sharpie permanent markers on ballots was causing machines to cancel votes on Election Day. He dropped that case after
