WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit against the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors on behalf of Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap for obstructing and interfering with election administration in the county. The lawsuit alleges that the Board is illegally attempting to seize control of statutorily delegated election operations by refusing to provide Recorder Heap with the resources necessary to fulfill his statutory duty to administer elections.
Under Arizona law, the Board is required to fund the necessary expenses of the Recorder’s Office. However, the Board recently passed a tentative budget that permanently transfers the Recorder’s key statutory duties to the Board and underfunds his office, denying him the resources needed to fulfill his statutory duties.
The dispute began due to a Shared Services Agreement (SSA) passed by a lame-duck Board in late 2024. When Recorder Heap took office in January, the Board removed nearly all of his election-related IT staff, took possession of his office’s voter registration systems and websites, including the servers and equipment used to run them, denied his office access to designated office and warehouse space, and withheld access to county-owned equipment needed to conduct early voting.
The Board’s unlawful actions have significantly impaired election operations in Maricopa County and threaten the administration of upcoming elections scheduled for July 15, September 23, and November 4, 2025. Unless this dispute is resolved, elections in Maricopa County will be conducted in violation of the law. The longer the county’s elections are unlawfully administered, the greater the risk of a catastrophic failure and the further erosion of voter confidence.
This lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to compel the Board to comply with Arizona law and fulfill its statutory obligations. AFL urges the Court to issue an order requiring the Board to fund all necessary expenses and resources for the Recorder’s Office without further delay or refusal.
“Arizona’s elections have become a laughingstock, and that’s mostly because of mismanagement of elections in Maricopa County,” said James Rogers, America First Legal Senior Counsel. “Recorder Heap was elected on a campaign platform of restoring transparency and lawfulness to elections because voter confidence in elections in Maricopa County was at an all-time low because of the chaos in election administration experienced by voters for nearly a decade. Shockingly, it appears that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors does not agree with those goals. AFL is proud to represent Recorder Heap in this important lawsuit to ensure that Arizona’s elections are properly conducted.”
“From day one, I promised the voters of Maricopa County that I would deliver more secure, more honest, and more transparent elections for all voters, regardless of their political party,” said Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap. “Similarly, I have promised to utilize every tool under state and federal law, including Arizona’s judicial system, in order to accomplish these very popular objectives. Today’s lawsuit seeks simply to reclaim the legal authority afforded to the County Recorder under Arizona law and ensure that my office is not further deprived of the resources necessary to perform those duties to the fullest extent possible. The Board of Supervisors’ bad faith tactics in the SSA negotiation, compounded by their unanimous May 19 budget vote to strip most of my statutory duties, are deeply disappointing, forcing us to take this issue to court. Despite their repeated misinformation and gaslighting of the public on these issues, defending the civil right to free, fair, and honest elections for every Maricopa County voter isn’t simply my job as County Recorder, it’s the right thing to do and a mission I’m fully committed to achieving.”
This lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by AFL to restore election integrity in Arizona. Previously, AFL sued Arizona’s County Recorders and compelled them to coordinate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify and remove illegal aliens from voter rolls. AFL also sued Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and forced him to release a list of 218,000 registered voters who had not provided proof of U.S. citizenship.
Read the complaint here.
Read the motion for preliminary injunction here.
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Photo Credit/ Adobe Stock: James Reininger
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