{"id":139373,"date":"2026-07-15T22:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/top-officials-in-arizonas-maricopa-county-agree-on-how-to-oversee-elections-ending-a-legal-battle\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:33:21","slug":"top-officials-in-arizonas-maricopa-county-agree-on-how-to-oversee-elections-ending-a-legal-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/top-officials-in-arizonas-maricopa-county-agree-on-how-to-oversee-elections-ending-a-legal-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Top officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County agree on how to oversee elections, ending a legal battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – Maricopa County Recorder candidate Arizona state Rep. Justin Heap, R-Phoenix, speaks during a campaign event Oct. 22, 2024, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Election officials in Arizona’s most populous county reached an agreement this week on how to jointly oversee the vote, ending a prolonged legal battle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap sued<\/a> the predominantly GOP board of supervisors in June 2025, alleging it illegally took control of certain aspects of election administration. The board called<\/a> the lawsuit frivolous and said Heap was wasting taxpayer money.<\/p>\n

They reached a settlement this week to resolve the lawsuit after mediated negotiations, and the board approved it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deal gets us out of the courtroom,\u201d board Chair Kate Brophy McGee, said after Tuesday’s vote. \u201cI\u2019m sick of drama. We are done with being on the front page going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heap said his objective was simple: to ensure his office’s statutory responsibilities are carried out lawfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased we have reached an agreement that, when implemented, will restore those responsibilities and establish a clear framework for administering elections moving forward,\u201d Heap said in a statement jointly released with the board.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, an interim plan proposed by Heap and approved by the Arizona Supreme Court will govern the July 21 primary. Early voting began in late June.<\/p>\n

Heap will oversee much of early voting, selection of ballot drop box locations and other duties. The board will handle other areas, including Election Day voting, ballot tabulation and voting location equipment maintenance. The board also will fund a new $15 million information technology system and related positions for the recorder.<\/p>\n

Heap was backed in the lawsuit by America First Legal, a conservative public interest group founded by Stephen Miller, a deputy chief of staff in the White House. Heap had claimed the board transferred funding, IT staff and some key functions \u2014 including management of drop boxes and establishment of early voting sites \u2014 away from his office through an agreement negotiated with his predecessor.<\/p>\n

Heap defeated<\/a> incumbent recorder Stephen Richer, in a GOP primary, and won the 2024 general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two were at odds over election administration in Maricopa County. In the past, Heap has stopped short of repeating false claims<\/a> that the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen. But he has said voters don\u2019t trust the state\u2019s voting system and that it is poorly run. Richer, also a Republican, relentlessly defended the legitimacy of the vote.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a Democrat, did not vote to approve the settlement and criticized Heap during Tuesday’s board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think he wants to have an election that is conducted transparent or even an election that\u2019s not compromised,\u201d Gallardo said. \u201cNow, with this, he owns it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – Maricopa County Recorder candidate Arizona state Rep. Justin Heap, R-Phoenix, speaks during a campaign event Oct. 22, 2024, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin, File)(AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin, File) PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Election officials in Arizona’s most populous county reached an agreement this week on how to jointly oversee the vote, ending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139373"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}