A new group of Republican politicians will soon take control of Maricopa County’s high-profile elections, a major swing county that has struggled for years with unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. is a big change.
The outgoing Republican leaders built national prominence for their passionate defense of county elections against critics within the party. But the newcomers, all of whom are also Republicans, say they will look for ways to improve the system and have suggested a different approach.
In particular, Recorder-elect Justin Heap has consistently criticized county elections and called for major changes. Mr. Heap currently serves as a Republican state representative. Defeats incumbent Recorder Stephen Richer He won the primary and then the general election in a race that drew national attention.
Heap said he had questions about fairness and safety. As for county elections, he called the county system a “laughing stock” and promised voters he would overhaul it. But he has divided control of county elections with a five-member oversight board, and said in an interview with Votebeat that the incoming board members plan to take a cautious approach to any changes. .
Mark Stewart, currently a member of the Chandler City Council, will replace current Chairman Jack Sellers on the Board of Supervisors. Incumbents Clint Hickman and Bill Gates have both declined to run for the next term, and will be replaced by Representative Debbie Lesko and former state senator Kate Brophy McGee.
The new semester starts on January 1st.
The most noticeable change may ultimately be in the county’s unified front in terms of messaging and tone. County officials have come together since the 2020 election to provide a swift and unified response to false claims and criticism. Officials felt they contributed to voter confidence.. From now on, new officials will be asked questions themselves, and they will have to build mutual trust while responding to voters’ distrust.
The incoming supervisors also want to rebuild the relationship between the state Legislature and the county, which broke down after the 2020 election. filed suit to obtain county ballots To conduct our own audits.
Focus on speeding up election results
As a recorder, Heap controls certain aspects of voter registration, voter roll maintenance, and early voting. His team plans to mail early ballots and verify voter signatures on returned early ballots. But once the signature is verified, the supervisor takes it from there.
Supervisors manage in-person voting, seasonal employment, technology, ballot processing, and vote counting.
Heap did not respond to multiple interview requests for this article. Recent radio interviews on KTARHe said he would consider changes to staffing levels, how voter rolls are cleaned and how mail-in ballots are tracked and secured.
“The people have spoken loud and clear,” he said in an interview on KTAR. “They’re demanding changes to elections that we haven’t had in a while, and I look forward to being president.”
Heap also emphasized that he wants to expedite the release of final election results. But he won’t have much control over it. he can make changes How fast will his team verify? Mail-in ballot signatureHowever, the processing and tabulation of ballots will be controlled by a supervisor.
That said, most of the new board members said in interviews that they too want to find ways to speed up the process.
Mr. Lesko, Mr. Brophy-McGee and Mr. Stewart separately said they began trying to learn more about how county elections are currently conducted to learn what is working and what is not. told. The two supervisors who won re-election, Republican Thomas Galvin and Democrat Steve Gallardo, said in interviews that they were optimistic about how their new colleagues would oversee the process.
When asked if they trusted the current county elections, new members gave a variety of answers.
“We’re going to look at what worked and what didn’t work,” Lesko said, adding that he believed there was room for changes “to make it better,” although he was not specific. .
Meanwhile, Brophy McGee said he believed “past elections were fair.”
“But the results are taking too long,” she said, believing the long timeline for results has led to public mistrust.
In an interview after his primary victory, Stewart said the court had proven there was no widespread fraud in the state’s election. But during the campaign, he criticized Maricopa County for technical issues in the 2022 election and believed the election was not fair for voters who had to wait in long lines because of the issues. He said there was.
He said the polarization of party politics was “frustrating everyone” and wanted to get back to a place where everyone could communicate with each other.
Former state Rep. Brophy McGee and Lesko said they believe they can leverage existing relationships to improve the relationship between regulators and state lawmakers.
The first idea they want to work with Congress on is speeding up election results.
Division of election duties
State law divides election duties between registrars and supervisors, who have shared service agreements that spell out their roles in more detail.
For decades, regulators have delegated more powers to the Recorder’s Office, but have repeatedly amended the agreement to take back control. Gates said the current agreement is closely aligned with state law. If supervisors decide to make changes that they don’t want to make, “I think they’re doing it at their peril unless they have a very good reason,” he said.
The current Board of Supervisors has decided to regain direct control over areas that state law gives them authority to do, in part because they will be held accountable anyway if a mistake occurs. be. Hickman said even if the new supervisor were to delegate duties to the recorder again, it would still “be a fire under their butts.”
The most recent change to the agreement came in October, just before the election, when Richer and supervisors agreed that the recorder would no longer manage the information technology department or vote processing. Hickman said regulators want direct oversight of the IT department following several different issues, including misprinted 2022 ballots.
In an interview with KTAR, Heap said it would be “short-sighted” for a “lame duck board” to sign this new agreement.
“I’m already talking to the incoming board members. One of the first things we’ll do is work on a new agreement that’s more meaningful,” he said, but he doesn’t know exactly what changes will be made. It is not clear what he proposes to do.
Mr. Lesko and Mr. Stewart independently confirmed that they had spoken with Mr. Heap and were open to reviewing the agreement. Lesko said she spoke with county officials and was told it is normal for a new recorder or supervisor to reinstate such an agreement.
Mr. Gallardo and Mr. Galvin said they supported preserving the current agreement. Galvin said the days when recorders controlled functions beyond those specifically mandated by state law are “gone by.”
What does the heap want to do?
Mr. Heap’s track record in the state Legislature over the past two years gives a hint of his priorities.
The bill introduced by Heap, for example, would have required recorders to maintain additional documentation to track each ballot throughout the system, from the time it is printed to the time it is cast. The bill didn’t pass, but as recorder he could change the way Maricopa County tracks ballots.
Democratic state Rep. Cesar Aguilar, who served on the City Oversight and Elections Commission with Mr. Heap this year, said he was concerned about some of Mr. Heap’s positions. That includes when Heap pushed to eliminate early voting and mail-in voting, saying that’s what voters want.
Heap told KTAR that he recognizes that “I don’t have the authority to simply eliminate mail-in voting, and if I did, I wouldn’t do it right away.” But he said he wants to make changes to help counties safely process early voting.
During the campaign, Mr. Heap said hundreds of voters told him in primary debates that they were receiving mail-in ballots intended for people who no longer lived at their address, and he called for clearing voter rolls of people who had moved. It accused Mr. Richer of neglect. And in an interview with KTAR, he said the first job of every registrar in the new year is to ensure that “only legal citizens are on the voter rolls” due to recent revelations. The state does not collect proof of citizenship from a select group of long-time residents. It’s on the voter list.
But he has not said what he would do otherwise, and both state and federal law limit when and why voters can be removed from the rolls.
Tom Ryan, a Democratic election attorney, said Heap’s policies will be subject to scrutiny by the county attorney’s office.
“Buena suerte (Spanish for ‘good luck’) for any foolish attempt to break the law,” Ryan said.
Heap said during the campaign that many incumbents were “employed by Radical Democrat Adrian Fontes, the former Maricopa Recorder and now Secretary of State,” and that others were career bureaucrats. He also expressed his intention to promote personnel changes.
But after the election, he told KTAR, “I’m not going to go into the house and clean it or anything.”
“You have to have the right people in the right places,” he says.
