E-Qual System Failure Directly Tied to Unanswered Funding Requests

PHOENIX – Secretary of State Adrian Fontes released the following statement explaining the E-Qual system failure and its connection to long-standing, unaddressed funding requests to modernize Arizona’s election infrastructure:

“While updating the back end of the E-Qual system, a typo resulted in a temporary system failure this evening,” said Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. “The buck stops with me, and my office is actively working to restore the service. As more information becomes available, we will communicate to candidates directly if any action is needed on their part to restore their files. But it is important to be clear: this failure occurred in the context of outdated systems and insufficient staffing that we have repeatedly warned about.

Since 2023, my office has consistently requested approximately $17 million to modernize aging election and candidate-facing systems. Those requests have not been funded. In 2024, we had one-time funding that allowed us to staff and monitor systems appropriately; that funding is now gone.

Most importantly, my office specifically requested authority to use already-appropriated CD7 funds to address these exact risks before the 2026 election cycle. On January 29, 2026, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee approved only a portion of that request and declined to review the remaining funding that would have strengthened system resilience and staffing capacity. That decision left known vulnerabilities unaddressed, and tonight’s failure is a direct consequence of that choice.

This legislative session, we also made clear that without funding, the Secretary of State’s Office would be unable to timely validate candidate petition signatures for the 2026 election cycle. The compressed statutory review window requires temporary staffing, specialized tools, and supervisory oversight that cannot be absorbed by existing staff. Without funding, delays and errors become unavoidable, increasing litigation risk and undermining confidence in the process.

Unfortunately, this is now the second time that legislative inaction on known cybersecurity and IT needs has resulted in a system incident. While my office will always take responsibility for administering elections, the Legislature must also meet its responsibility to ensure elections are properly funded.

To best serve Arizona, we will continue to ask the Legislature to fully fund Arizona’s election systems so that preventable failures like this do not happen again for candidates, for voters, and for the integrity of our democracy.”