Arizona Secretary of State’s Office Highlights Urgent Need for IT Modernization Following IT Issue

PHOENIX – The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office reiterated today the urgent need for long-term investment in the Office’s aging information technology infrastructure after a technical issue affected a small number of campaign committees using the state’s online campaign finance filing system.

Yesterday, a small number of campaign committees encountered challenges accessing or submitting reports through the campaign finance portal due to a technical issue. The Office’s IT and vendor teams are actively working to resolve the problem, and all committees are expected to be able to successfully submit their reports by the end of the day.

Since 2023, the Secretary of State’s Office has requested more than $17 million in cybersecurity and IT modernization funding through its formal budget submissions to the Legislature. In September 2025, the Office submitted an additional supplemental request of $9.4 million for FY2026 and $3.7 million in ongoing funding beginning in FY2027 to replace obsolete systems and strengthen cybersecurity protections. These requests follow a successful defense earlier this year against a cyberattack believed to have originated from Iran, underscoring the continuing risks posed by outdated infrastructure.

“Arizona’s democracy depends on secure, modern, and reliable systems,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. “Unfortunately, many of the IT systems the SOS relies on are old or obsolete, which leads to regular malfunctions and heightened cybersecurity vulnerabilities. My Office knows what’s required to fix these problems and has been proactive in seeking the necessary resources from the Legislature.”

The slowdown is connected to recent security patching and recovery work following the aforementioned cybersecurity incident. Some of the required security updates have caused intermittent performance issues across certain systems.

“My Office remains committed to strengthening Arizona’s digital infrastructure and ensuring that election, business, and campaign finance systems remain secure, reliable, and accessible to the public,” the statement concluded.