Adrian Fontes on Sept. 22.

Matt York/AP

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Matt York/AP

Adrian Fontes on Sept. 22.

Matt York/AP

Democrat Adrian Fontes, who beforehand ran elections for Arizona’s largest county, has been narrowly elected to supervise voting in all the state as secretary of state, in accordance with a race name by The Associated Press.

Fontes defeated Republican Mark Finchem, a far-right candidate with ties to the extremist group the Oath Keepers, who was on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democrats, present and former election officers and democracy consultants made it clear main as much as the election that Finchem profitable this down-ballot race may lead the state down a darkish path.

“Democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona,” former President Barack Obama warned throughout a pre-election rally for the state’s Democratic slate.

The race name, which got here late Friday, makes Finchem the newest election denier to be defeated this cycle in a secretary of state race in a aggressive state, following losses by Republican candidates in Michigan, Minnesota and New Mexico.

Mark Finchem on Sept. 22.

Matt York/AP

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Mark Finchem on Sept. 22.

Matt York/AP

Finchem was a part of a coalition of GOP secretary of state candidates throughout the nation who all ran on the false premise that the present election system was corrupt. Finchem, who had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, had referred to as for an overhaul of Arizona voting that will restrict entry.

Finchem criticized the state’s election administration as counting continued on previous Election Day, and alluded to some form of conspiracy involving Fontes.

But in the long run, it was Fontes, the previous county recorder for Maricopa County, Ariz., who gained.

Now, because the state’s prime voting official, he’ll be confronted with easy methods to fight election denialism in a single the nation’s epicenters for it.

Shortly after voting resulted in 2020, and through the finish of Fontes’ time period as county recorder, one of many more famous vote-counting conspiracies, dubbed “SharpieGate,” bloomed in Maricopa.

Half a 12 months later, the Cyber Ninjas started their widely discredited “audit” of the vote there (which additionally confirmed that Biden gained).

In an interview with NPR earlier than voting ended, Fontes mentioned he wouldn’t be shy in calling out voting disinformation.

“We’re going to take off the gloves,” Fontes mentioned. “I’m not afraid to call out election denialists for the liars that they are. … And I’m also not afraid to let folks know that there are no two sides in this conflict. There’s one side. There’s the American side. The other side is illegitimate.”