The decision carries significance for Arizona’s 2026 midterms. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has been a flashpoint for election disputes since President Donald Trump lost Arizona to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, triggering waves of baseless fraud claims that led to threats of violence against elections officials.
A judge in Arizona’s most populous county on Friday sided with the county’s elected recorder in a lawsuit that will reshape authority over election administration in the state’s premier battleground ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney ruled that the county board of supervisors had acted unlawfully when it claimed control over functions including management of ballot drop boxes and selection of early voting sites — duties that belong to Recorder Justin Heap, according to state law.
Context and consequences
The decision matters for Arizona’s 2026 midterms because Maricopa County has been a flashpoint for election disputes since President Donald Trump lost Arizona to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. That loss triggered waves of baseless fraud claims that led to threats of violence against elections officials.
The dispute over control
Heap sued the board in summer 2025, alleging it had illegally taken control of certain aspects of election administration through an agreement negotiated with his predecessor, Stephen Richer, whom Heap defeated in the 2024 Republican primary before winning the general election.
The board had transferred funding and IT staff to its own control, Heap argued, and had seized operational authority over ballot drop box management and early voting site decisions that state law reserved for the elected recorder.
Board Chairwoman Kate Brophy McGee said the board would consider appealing. “From day one, the Board of Supervisors has provided Recorder Heap the resources and staffing needed to fulfill his statutory duties,” McGee said. “We will continue to do so because voters always come first.”
The judge’s reasoning
Blaney sided largely with Heap. The board “acted unlawfully and exceeded its statutory authority by seizing the Recorder’s personnel, systems and equipment and refusing to return them,” he wrote in his decision, filed Thursday but appearing on the public docket Friday.
The judge assigned clear operational responsibilities: the recorder’s office now oversees in-person early voting; the board handles selection of Election Day polling locations, supply of materials to those locations, and hiring of poll workers.
“The Board’s assertion of plenary authority over election administration through its general supervisory powers is inconsistent with Arizona law,” Blaney wrote.
Heap’s political ascent
Heap called the ruling a “clear and decisive victory for the rule of law and for the voters of Maricopa County.” He added that the court had confirmed “the Board cannot override state law, use funding as leverage, or take control of election duties assigned to the Recorder.”
A former Republican state lawmaker, Heap campaigned in 2024 as a critic of the county’s election administration, arguing that voters lacked trust in the system. He has stopped short of repeating the false fraud claims that circulated about the 2020 and 2022 elections, but his emergence as a political figure aligned with election skeptics drew scrutiny from his predecessor.
Stephen Richer, the recorder Heap defeated, said Heap had exploited deep distrust in the office for political gain. “He catered to the really ugly stuff that the people in that office had to live through,” Richer said 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.”
The baseless fraud claims that followed the 2020 election had exposed Richer and other county elections workers to threats.
Legal backing and next steps
Heap filed his lawsuit with the backing of America First Legal, a conservative legal group founded by Stephen Miller, who now serves as deputy chief of staff in the Trump White House.
The ruling restores to Heap the authority and resources he had sought after taking office, when he terminated the prior agreement between Richer and the board that had divided operational responsibilities. That termination triggered the legal conflict now resolved in Heap’s favor—a significant shift in power that the board said it would review through the appeals process.