New Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap published a news release on Monday demanding that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) return their control over much of the elections process to him, or he would take legal action. The MCBOS transferred significant powers away from the recorder in 2019, due to a disappointing job performance by then-recorder Adrian Fontes. They grabbed even more powers from Heap last fall, and have mostly ignored his objections.
“With an election less than 90 days away,” Heap said, “the Supervisors’ unwillingness to address these concerns will force me to take legal action against the Board to restore this office’s full authority, and deliver the results voters elected me to achieve. If the Board is unwilling to have good faith discussions with the Recorder regarding our statutorily shared election duties, then perhaps it is time to return all election responsibilities to the Recorder’s Office — something I readily welcome.”
Heap began his statement, “Amid rising public outrage and increasing reports of misinformation being promulgated by Maricopa County Supervisors, Recorder Justin Heap addresses the future of elections and the urgent need for a new Shared Services Agreement (SSA) with the Board of Supervisors.”
He went over the relevant state law and the history leading up to the feud. He said the laws are intentionally vague regarding divvying up election responsibilities. Most election duties are assigned to “[t]he County Recorder or other officer in charge of elections,” several election statutes provide. As a result, counties enter into SSAs between the recorders and the boards of supervisors dividing election duties. While some counties have copied Maricopa and transferred some of the powers over elections to their county supervisors, others haven’t followed suit.
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