PHOENIX (AP) – The top election official in Arizona’s most populous county will have more authority to participate in elections after a judge shared responsibility for overseeing voting in a long legal battle with the local board.
The decision could have far-reaching implications in one of the nation’s most prominent battleground states, which will feature several high-profile races this fall. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has been a hotbed of election conspiracy theorists since President Donald Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden during his bid for re-election in 2020.
Justin Heap, a Republican recorder in Maricopa County, sued the predominantly Republican County Board of Supervisors last summer, alleging that it illegally controlled some aspects of election administration. Heap claimed the board transferred funding, IT staff and some key functions — including managing ballot drop boxes and setting up early voting sites — away from his office through a deal he negotiated with his predecessor, whom he recently defeated in the GOP primary.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney mostly sided with Heap’s office in his ruling, which was filed Thursday but appeared in the public docket Friday. The board of supervisors “acted unlawfully and exceeded its statutory authority” by seizing the recorder’s personnel, systems and equipment and refusing to return them, he wrote.
Blaney also decided that the recorder’s office was personally responsible for overseeing early voting, among other duties, while the board was responsible for other tasks, such as selecting polling places on Election Day, supplying polling places and hiring poll workers.
“The board’s assertion of absolute authority over election administration through its general supervisory powers is inconsistent with Arizona law,” the judge wrote.
Board President Kate Brophy McGee said the board will consider the appeal.
“I disagree with other parts of the decision, and I will explore all options, including an expedited appeal with the Board of Supervisors,” McGee, a Republican, said in a statement. “Since day one, the Board of Supervisors has provided the recorder with the resources and staff necessary to fulfill her statutory duties. We will continue to do so because voters always come first.”
In a statement, Heap hailed the decision as “a clear and decisive victory for the rule of law and the voters of Maricopa County.”
“The court confirmed that the board cannot override state law, use funds as leverage, or take control of election duties assigned to the recorder,” Hepp said. “This decision restores both the authority and resources my office needs to do its job.”
Heap, a former Republican state lawmaker, was elected in 2024 after ousting incumbent Stephen Richer in the GOP primary and defeating a Democratic candidate in the general election. In the past, Heap has stopped short of repeating false claims that the 2020 and 2022 elections were rigged, but said voters don’t trust the state’s voting system and that it is poorly run.
False claims of fraud after the 2020 presidential election led to threats of violence against Richer and others at the Maricopa County Elections Office. Richer accused Heap of contributing to an atmosphere of mistrust and vitriol directed toward the office.
“He accomplished really ugly stuff that people in the office had to live with,” Richer said of Heap in an interview last month. “And he allied with people who were very much in the eye of the storm in terms of creating it.”
Once he took office, Heap rescinded a previous agreement between Richer and the board that had revised how election duties were divided between the two offices. Heap filed his lawsuit with the support of America First Legal, a conservative public interest group founded by Stephen Miller, now deputy chief of staff in the White House.
