Highlights

The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday handed Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap a unanimous win in his 18-month fight with the county board of supervisors over control of early-voting operations, reinstating injunctions that require the board to fund all necessary expenses of the recorder's office.

The ruling, reported by KJZZ and the Arizona Mirror, vacated a divided Arizona Court of Appeals decision that had stayed a Maricopa County Superior Court order from April. That order, issued by Judge Scott Blaney, directed the board to return IT staff, servers, databases, software, websites, and equipment that were controlled by the recorder before an October 2024 agreement, or to immediately fund their replacement.

The dispute traces to before Heap took office in January 2025. After Heap won the 2024 Republican primary, the board signed an agreement with Heap's predecessor to shift the recorder's IT department to be under the board's control. Heap terminated that agreement shortly after taking office and sued the board in June 2025.

The supervisors had sought a stay from the Court of Appeals, arguing it was too close to the July 21 primary to purchase new election equipment or change protocols. The appeals court agreed in a divided decision. Heap appealed to the Supreme Court.

Why did the Supreme Court side with Heap?

Chief Justice Ann Timmer wrote that based on past case law, "the Board cannot use budgetary authority to usurp an independently elected officer's statutory functions." The court rejected the supervisors' argument that, because it controls funding for early voting, it can allocate that funding to the Maricopa County Elections Director to perform early voting duties.

To limit disruption ahead of the July 21 primary, the court adopted a 12-point interim operational protocol that Heap had earlier proposed to ensure that the primary election isn't impacted.

In a joint statement, Board Chairwoman Kate Brophy McGee and Vice Chairwoman Debbie Lesko said they were disappointed but that the board had reached consensus with Heap on Monday following two days of court-ordered mediation. "The Board will follow the law and abide by the court's decision," they wrote.

Heap's office said it is ready to implement the court's order ahead of the July 21 primary.

Sources

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  1. azmirror.com retrieved 08/07/2026 03:54

Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 08/07/2026 03:54. Every claim traces to a source.