Mary Beth Brown: One of the Most Important Vote Counters in America Repped Drug Trafficker Celis-Acosta
Those who vote decide nothing; those who count the vote decide everything — so goes an old communist saying.
This is not a problem when those counting the votes are honest and follow the rules, but if you get radical socialists who feel justified in doing anything to win — including lying, breaking the rules and committing election fraud — then this can literally change everything.
For example, before going to bed on the eve of the 2018 elections in Arizona, Republicans had won a Senate seat, secretary of state and two other important races. However, after the next few days ballots mysteriously kept “showing up.” Invalid and legal ballots were mixed together and counted by Democratic Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, thus switching those four races from Republican to Democrat.
Adrian Fontes is a Bernie Sanders socialist with a history of lying and deception and a criminal record — and he will do whatever it takes to win. Fontes and others like him should be a concern to each state, but also the rest of the country because of the effect the election results will have on all Americans.
On the evening of Nov. 3, people will closely watch states light up in red or blue as eyes travel east to west across the map of the U.S. and settle on Arizona — especially if battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin go for Biden.
Why Arizona?
If both of those swing states go for Biden, then the whole election hinges on Arizona, a state that the progressive left has targeted since 2016 by flooding millions of dollars into turning the once reliably red state blue.
Billionaire George Soros backed Fontes’ recorder campaign in 2016, but help also came from Bernie Sanders’ progressive Our Revolution because they saw the importance of getting a socialist like Fontes elected to this important office.
The Maricopa County recorder is the person who oversees the elections in Arizona’s largest county — which has a population of nearly four million people and therefore largely determines the outcome of the state’s elections.
Fontes publicly calls Republicans legislators “fascists” and their ideas “bulls—,” attacks people on the current ballot like Sen. Martha McSally, regularly calls President Trump “full of s—” and an “enemy of democracy” and marches in rallies where people shout “f— Trump.”
Since taking office, Fontes has frequently made mistakes besides breaking and making up his own rules. He lets people complain — and then just keeps doing it, neither apologizing or answering questions. Both elected officials and members of the media have criticized him for his reckless disregard for the law.
During the Democratic primary in March, Fontes took it upon himself to send out only mail-in ballots to everyone, whether they asked or not — a move that benefited Bernie Sanders.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in a Twitter post, “The Maricopa County Recorder cannot unilaterally rewrite state election laws. In times of crisis, the public looks to our elected officials to follow the law and to not make reactionary decisions for political gain.”
The Maricopa County Recorder cannot unilaterally rewrite state election laws. In times of crisis, the public looks to our elected officials to follow the law and to not make reactionary decisions for political gain. https://t.co/S4IT2CEtuU
— Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) March 13, 2020
Fontes responds to criticism by deflecting with vulgar, uncivil and crude non-answers. One constituent who criticized a confusing ballot change Fontes had made was told on social media to “go f— yourself.”
Before Fontes was county recorder, he was the lawyer for Phoenix drug dealer and firearms trafficking ringleader Manuel Celis-Acosta. Celis-Acosta sold guns to the Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel in Obama’s “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal, including the gun the Mexican cartel used to kill Border Patrol Officer Brian Terry.
He has represented clients charged with everything from sexual assault and narcotics violations to money laundering, burglary and human trafficking.
Blatant partisan behavior is common for Fontes.
Before the election in 2018, he had government workers go back and “cure” ballots that lacked documentation of citizenship so that they would be counted. On the day of the election, he went over the board of supervisors to set up “emergency” voting sites, but only in heavily Democratic areas.
This was an especially partisan act because there are more registered Republicans in the county than Democrats. Also, in some Republican areas ballot machines weren’t working and people were told to leave their name and number to learn where to go to vote — except the calls didn’t come.
Last summer he unlawfully had instructions printed with ballots telling people how to cross out mistakes instead of asking for a new ballot. The ruined ballots can’t be counted in the voting machines, thus slowing down the results and leaving the ballot open to human tampering.
A conservative group sued Fontes over his new instructions with printed ballots, but in his arrogance he didn’t stop, even when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that what he was doing was illegal.
Fontes and others like him are a big threat to valid election results on Nov. 3, and there are sure to be battles in the coming days.
Republican volunteers are watching the polls, and lawyers will be ready in the key swing states to fight if they see any evidence of election fraud.
Arizona is undoubtedly a key state in this year’s elections. Fontes is in a key position, and the fate of the presidential election could depend upon what he does.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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