Arizona judge backs recorder's expanded authority in county election dispute

In a ruling April 17, an Arizona Superior Court judge largely sided with Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap in his lawsuit against the county board of supervisors over election operations, giving Heap expanded authority to oversee voting procedures in the state’s most populous county. The decision comes as Heap has implemented controversial changes to signature verification on mail ballots and has used a federal system to check voter rolls for noncitizens, drawing criticism from state officials and county board members. The conflict between election administrators is raising concerns about voter confidence in election administration as Arizona approaches its July primary and November general election.

The turmoil in Maricopa County—a regular target of election conspiracy theories and pivotal to determining statewide races—has created uncertainty in a critical election year. Arizona is expected to have at least two competitive U.S. House races in November while Democrats defend their seats for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

The ruling and the lawsuit

Heap took office after defeating the incumbent in the 2024 Republican primary. He quickly began challenging the board of supervisors, which is majority Republican.

The lawsuit accused the board of negotiating an agreement with Heap’s predecessor to transfer money, information technology staff and certain election functions away from his office. The board’s chair, Kate Brophy McGee, said the board would consider an appeal.

Before the ruling, supervisors had called Heap’s lawsuit frivolous and “full of falsehoods.” A budget meeting in January devolved into heated accusations, with Supervisor Thomas Galvin, a Republican, saying Heap “continues to lie over and over again.” Heap dismissed the incident as a “juvenile temper tantrum.”

The board had proposed a settlement earlier this year but did not receive a counteroffer from Heap.

Signature verification changes

Once in office, Heap changed the process for checking voters’ signatures on their mail ballot envelopes. The new procedure involves workers of both political parties reviewing signatures and additional reviewers assessing signatures deemed questionable.

Some elected officials have expressed concern that the new policy could lead to otherwise eligible ballots being rejected. Galvin said the rejection rate in the November 2025 local election was “huge” relative to past elections and expressed worry that many voters “who legally and validly voted last November saw their ballots be rejected for arbitrary reasons.”

Heap said the new policy is faster and more secure. “In the end, the signatures either match or they don’t,” he told the board.

Checking for noncitizens

Heap’s office used the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system to identify people on the voter rolls who may not be citizens. The office said it found 137 registered voters who are not U.S. citizens, with 60 of those having voted in prior elections. The Maricopa County attorney’s office received 207 names from the recorder’s office to review for voting eligibility.

Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens is rare, and the SAVE system has been criticized by election officials and experts who say it frequently identifies eligible voters as noncitizens. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the program is unreliable.

“The SAVE system is notoriously inaccurate,” Fontes said. “You can’t depend on that to take somebody off the voter rolls or to start the removal proceeding.”

Fontes said his office has not received additional information from the recorder about the alleged noncitizen voters and that the timing of the announcement makes it seem like “more of a headline grab than anything without more information.”

Official response

State Senator Lauren Kuby, a Democrat on a legislative elections committee and resident of Phoenix, said the discord between the recorder and county board is sowing confusion. “We’re one of the biggest counties in the country, and we have all of our election administrators fighting right now,” she said. “So I imagine if you’re a voter, you’re pretty confused and worried.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, told a local media outlet that Heap is “trying to undermine Arizonans’ trust in our election system” and warned him not to provide voter lists to the federal government.

Pinny Sheoran, state advocacy chair with the League of Women Voters of Arizona, said the conflict between the recorder and board has frayed public confidence. “The voters need to have a sense that this county is well-run, that the recorder and the board of supervisors have the best interest of every voter,” Sheoran said. “And that is frayed with this discord.”

Federal attention

Heap announced his office’s use of the SAVE system the same day he attended a news conference outside Phoenix where then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was promoting a congressional bill requiring documented proof of citizenship to register and vote.

Correspondence obtained from the recorder’s office through a public records request shows a willingness to defer to the U.S. Department of Justice. In September, Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the department’s Civil Rights Division, wrote to Fontes, Heap and county officials seeking preservation of county election records. Heap replied the next day, stressing in his letter that his office is “committed to full cooperation with the Department of Justice as it conducts its investigation,” before adding: “We share your goal of safeguarding election integrity.”

The Department of Justice sued Arizona months later for failing to comply with its request for detailed voter information.