Fontes Recognized for Excellence in Election Administration with Fourth National Clearinghouse Award

PHOENIX – Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes today announced that our “2024 Arizona Election Administration Student Fellowship Program” won a “Clearie” from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for Excellence in Election Administration: Innovations or New Practices in Election Administration.

“Winning a Clearie Award is always incredibly rewarding,” said Secretary Adrian Fontes. “I’m particularly grateful to my staff for their tireless dedication to innovation, security, and recruitment, all of which directly contribute to greater ballot access. Their work strengthens our democracy, and I’m proud to see our collective efforts recognized at the national level.”

Commonly known as the “Clearies,” these prestigious awards from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission celebrate the exceptional efforts of election offices nationwide. Now in its ninth year, this round of Clearies honor election programs conducted during the 2024 presidential election cycle.

Learn more about Secretary Fontes’ award-winning election administration initiatives:

2024 - Innovations or New Practices in Election Administration with the County Election Administration Fellowship

To address the need to recruit new workers to the election administration profession, the Arizona Secretary of State’s (AZSOS) office created an Election Administration Student Fellowship Program for the November 2024 election. The initiative strives to inspire college students to consider working in the field of election administration. In addition to giving Arizona college students exposure to election administration through hands-on work in county offices, the Fellowship program provided paid staff support to county election administrators to help address shortages of staff resources. A total of 18 fellows were selected and 16 of those worked in county-level election offices across eight Arizona counties. The other two fellows worked directly for AZSOS. The program was funded with Arizona Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, provided by the Arizona Governor’s office.

2023 - Outstanding Innovations in Election Cybersecurity and Technology with the Arizona AI Tabletop Exercises (TTX)

Innovations created and implemented by Secretary Fontes, while he was Maricopa County Recorder earned recognition in both 2019 and 2020. In total, administrations under his leadership have received four awards.

EAC Chairman Donald Palmer, Vice Chair Thomas Hicks, and Commissioners Christy McCormick and Ben Hovland praised the 2024 Clearie winners in a joint statement:

“This year’s Clearinghouse Award-winning programs truly shined amid the high voter turnout in 2024. They are examples of the outstanding work election officials did to support tens of millions of voters during the presidential election. After nearly a decade, the Clearinghouse Awards continue to grow with a record number of entries received this year. These programs show how state and local election offices are the incubators of innovation. We are pleased to lift their ideas up and celebrate them on a national stage.”

Congratulations to Pima County Elections Department for winning a Clearie for Best Practices in Recruiting, Retaining, and Training Poll Workers category and for Coconino County for their Exemplary Contingency Planning and Emergency Response Efforts Clearie win.   

The Office of the Arizona Secretary of State also earned an honorable mention in the Communications category for Distinguished Voter Education and Communications Initiatives for our Outreach Director’s “Native Voting Hour” initiative. Maricopa County Elections also received an honorable mention for their Adjudication Training Manual. Pima County Elections also won an honorable mention for their Elections Asset Inventory Management Program.

The Clearies play an essential role in fulfilling the EAC’s mission to serve as a clearinghouse for election administration information under the Help America Vote Act. The EAC is an independent, bipartisan federal agency solely focused on election administration. Submissions were judged on innovation, sustainability, outreach, cost-effectiveness, replicability, and the generation of positive results.

More information on the Clearies and each awardee is available on eac.gov