PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona is expected to have at least two competitive races in the U.S. House of Representatives in November as Democrats defend their seats for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
Until now, however, it has been the office that presides over elections in the state’s most populous district that has commanded most of the attention.
Republican Justin Heap is one skeptical about the elections who will oversee his first statewide election in Maricopa County. He has been embroiled in a bitter legal battle with the county board of supervisors over election procedures, instituted a controversial system for checking signatures on mail-in ballots and ran voter records through a federal system to screen for noncitizens, despite questions about its accuracy. Heap has also made inroads for the Trump administration in its search for voter and election records.
His actions have drawn harsh comments from members of that board, which shares election oversight with Heap’s office, and rebukes from the attorney general and secretary of state. A decision this week in the legal case will give Heap more authority over election operations.
The unrest has created an atmosphere of uncertainty about how the midterm elections will go a circuit which has been one regular target of election conspiracy theorists and it is crucial to deciding statewide races in one of the country’s most important political battlegrounds.
State Sen. Lauren Kuby, a Democrat who sits on a legislative election committee and represents part of Phoenix, said the dispute between the recorder and the county board is sowing confusion and mistrust.
“We’re one of the largest 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.”
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which Heap heads, did not respond to questions despite multiple requests for comment. Heap released a statement in response to the court’s ruling, saying it “restores the authority and resources necessary for my office to do its job.”
A power struggle and harsh accusations
Heap took over next beating incumbent in the 2024 Republican primary. He quickly began challenging the Republican-majority board of supervisors.
it unsuspecting them in June 2025 with the support of America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Stephen Miller, now a White House deputy chief of staff. The lawsuit accused the board of negotiating a deal with Heap’s predecessor to move money, information technology staff and some election functions away from his office, including managing ballot boxes, processing early ballots and setting up locations used for early voting.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge largely sided with Heap in the case. Board Chairwoman Kate Brophy McGee said the board will consider an appeal.
Before the ruling, supervisors had called Heap’s lawsuit frivolous and “full of lies” as part of a power struggle that has at times boiled over. A budget meeting in January turned into bitter accusations, with Supervisor Thomas Galvin, a Republican, saying Heap “continues to lie over and over again.” In a statement released afterward, Heap dismissed the incident as “a juvenile temper tantrum.”
The board proposed a settlement earlier this year, but did not receive a counteroffer from Heap.
New way to check voter signatures
After taking the job, Heap changed the process of checking voters’ signatures on their mail-in ballot envelopes.
The new procedure involves workers from both political parties reviewing signatures and more workers conducting additional reviews of signatures deemed suspicious, Heap told the board during a meeting last fall.
But some elected officials and observers say they are concerned the new policy could lead to rejection of acceptable ballots. Galvin said the rejection rate in the November 2025 local elections was “huge” compared to past elections.
He has said he worries the new signature verification process is an “imminent disaster” and expressed concern that many people “who voted legally and validly last November saw their ballots rejected on arbitrary grounds.”
Heap says the new policy is faster and safer. “In the end, signatures either match or they don’t,” he told the board.
Checking citizenship, but accuracy is a question
Heap has touted his office’s use of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system to identify people on voter rolls who may not be citizens.
The office said that through the system, it found “137 registered voters who are not US citizens” and that 60 of them “voted in the previous election.” The Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office said it received 207 names from the registrar’s office to review for eligibility to vote.
Voting by people who are not US citizens it is rareand the SAVE system has been criticized by some election officials and experts, who say it often identifies eligible voters as noncitizens. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said in an interview that the program is unreliable.
“The SAVE system is extremely inaccurate,” he said. “You can’t rely on that to remove someone from the voter rolls or start removal proceedings.”
The registrar’s office announced the use of the SAVE system the same day Heap attended a news conference outside Phoenix where then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was promoting a congressional bill that would require documented proof of citizenship to register and vote.
Fontes said his office has not received any additional information from the registrar about alleged noncitizen voters and that the timing of the announcement makes it seem like “more of a title grab than anything without more information.”
Fear of damaging confidence in the election
Heap’s presence at Noem’s press conference in February was not the only time the recorder appeared close to the Trump administration.
Correspondence received by the registrar’s office through a public records request indicates a willingness to respond to the US Department of Justice. This year the department ballots and other data are seized regarding the 2020 election from Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes Atlanta.
Meanwhile, the FBI called similar Maricopa County records by the president of the state Senate.
Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the department’s Civil Rights Division, wrote to Fontes, Heap and county officials in September requesting the preservation of county election records. Heap responded the next day, noting in his letter that his office is “committed to fully cooperating with the Department of Justice as it conducts its investigation,” before adding, “We share your goal of protecting the integrity of elections.”
As it has done in other states, the department sued Arizona months later for failing to comply with its request for detailed voter information.
The state’s attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, told a local media outlet that Heap is “trying to undermine Arizonans’ trust in our election system” and warned him not to release voter rolls to the federal government.
As the state’s July primary approaches, some observers are concerned that Heap’s disagreement with the board and other actions could undermine public confidence in the election.
“Voters need to have a sense that this county is well-run, that the registrar and the board of supervisors have every voter’s best interest at heart,” said Pinny Sheoran, state advocacy chair with the Arizona League of Women Voters. “And this is fraught with this discord.”
By JOSH KELETY Associated Press
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