By Dustin Gardiner | Arizona Republic
Steve Gaynor, a Republican running for Arizona secretary of state, said last weekend that the United States should stop printing ballots in any language other than English.
He made his comments Aug. 11 during a GOP candidate forum in Wickenburg. Patriot Movement AZ, a right-wing protest group, posted a video of the event on Facebook.
Gaynor is challenging incumbent Secretary of State Michele Reagan in the Aug. 28 primary. In Arizona, the secretary is the state’s chief elections officer and its No. 2 elected official — first in line to succeed the governor.
Gaynor owns a printing business in Los Angeles that produces pamphlets for elections in California.
“My printing plant in LA printed an information pamphlet not too long ago. It had 18 languages on it,” Gaynor told the Wickenburg crowd in response to a question about non-English-language ballots.
The crowd booed. One woman audibly gagged.