The Fountain Hills Democratic Club hosted Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes at its Oct. 10 meeting.

Fontes addressed the more than 60 in attendance. Fontes gave a provocative and informative talk about his personal history and his accomplishments in the past three years in office.

After serving as an attorney with the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and the Attorney General, Fontes became a public defender in the Federal Court System. In March 2016, he said he was disgusted and horrified by the long lines at polling sites, which he saw as an attack on the American value of expanding the franchise. He decided to run for county recorder. In an upset victory, he defeated Helen Purcell, who had held that office for more than 20 years.

Since taking office, Fontes has made many improvements. Among those was finding 96,000 voter registration forms that had never been enrolled, fixing precinct lines and allowing voters of Maricopa County to be able to vote at any county polling site.

As result of changes in how the county votes, voter participation in 2018 increased by 42 percent.

Fontes explained, “Our job is to make sure it’s easy for you to vote.”

Following Fontes’ encouraging talk, members had the opportunity to meet with their precinct committee persons and neighbors to learn more about participating in the upcoming elections.

The next meeting of the Fountain Hills Democratic Club will be Nov. 14 at the Community Center with guest speaker former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, speaking on his campaign to end dirty money. Elections will also be held for three club offices.