Maricopa County voters will choose a new recorder this year, for the third time in as many elections so far, in a heated battle centered on election integrity.

On Nov. 5, voters argued that the need to improve county elections doesn’t justify free fall into conspiracy theories, and that county elections have left Maricopa with a “national laughing stock.” person” and supports the total number of hands.

State Rep. Justin Heap (R-Mesa) has consistently dodged questions about whether he believes the 2020 and 2022 elections in his county were stolen from prominent Republicans. Instead, he has repeatedly responded that he wants to restore Arizonans’ damaged trust in elections.

“If voters don’t trust the system, they’re just going to walk away and stop voting. And voters of all parties — and this isn’t just limited to Republicans in the primaries — Republicans, Democrats, independents all… We’re reporting a large number of supporters that we don’t trust.” Please have confidence in the system,” Heap said. “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simmons said in a June interview.. “This is due to the way our system operates and not due to misinformation being spread online.”

During his time in the House, Mr. Heap has claimed that there are Republicans (including many of his fellow Congressmen) who have publicly claimed, without evidence, that elections won by Democrats were marred by fraud. He has supported several bills aimed at fixing the problem. they have consistently We’re screwed prove Allegations of fraud in the election.

These include bills such as: Prohibition of electronic tabulation ballot paper and force hand countand that is eliminate choices to early voting For most Arizonans.

Heap, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus in the state Legislature, was scouted to run for county recorder by the caucus’ head, Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman. one of the fake electors A conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 Arizona election to keep Donald Trump in the White House.

Heap’s Democratic opponent, Tim Stringham, told the Arizona Mirror that his work promoting democracy and fair elections as a human rights lawyer for the US Navy in Nigeria and other countries inspired him to run for office in his home country. said.

“I am a person who has volunteered to go abroad to advise other countries on elections, democratic governance, and peaceful transitions of power in order to build democratic institutions and build support for human rights, including elections. ,” Stringham said.

But he said he was also motivated to run by fear that Heap would defeat incumbent Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer in the Republican primary.

Mr. Richer refuted claims of election fraud and maintained that the county’s elections were free, fair and transparent, but lost to Mr. Heap after facing continued hatred and ridicule from his own party over the past four years.

Stringham told Arizona Horizon that if Richer had won, he would have withdrawn from the race.

Stringham said he doesn’t believe Maricopa County’s past elections were stolen, but he doesn’t take all of the government’s claims at face value.

But Stringham made it clear that he doesn’t believe in the conspiracy theories spread by people like Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake. She still claims she won the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election.

Mr. Lake formally endorsed Mr. Heap in March, and Mr. Heap said he was. I’m proud to have her backing..

Richie and Lake Civil defamation lawsuit Lake’s false claim that Richer was responsible for 300,000 “illegal, invalid, false and bogus” early votes being counted in Maricopa County led to Lake’s gubernatorial race against Democrat Katie Hobbs. I lost to Mr. lake in march recognized in court that her statement was false.

“If you’re going to correct lies and half-truths, you shouldn’t accept Kali Lake’s endorsement,” Stringham said.

Heap accused high-paid out-of-state political consultants and “Democrat-controlled media” of spreading lies and half-truths about him.

Heap did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. He also refused to participate in two debates with Stringham.

Stringham said he absolutely believes Heap’s assertion that Arizonans don’t trust their elections is contributing to distrust in Arizona.

“When you’re actually in the Recorder’s Office, there’s only so much valuable taxpayer and staff time to spend responding to conspiracy theories, and how much time do you really need to spend addressing genuine concerns at heart?” It’s different. That’s what people do,” Stringham said.

policy recommendations

The Maricopa County Recorder oversees mail-in voting, maintains the county’s voter rolls, and records documents such as votes and deeds.

Neither Heap nor Stringham have submitted detailed policy proposals. Stringham said he wants to learn the ropes before taking office and making changes, following strict and complex state and federal election laws, managing voter rolls and ensuring citizens can vote and non-citizens cannot. He added that his main goal is to

inside Clean election debate on September 12thStringham said the Recorder’s Office can use technology to improve processes. Catch fraud before it’s recorded.

heap told the Arizona Republic He also said he believes the process for recording titles and deeds needs to be improved so owners can be notified when changes are made to a property to detect fraud. Ta.

Already in Maricopa County Free title alert system This notifies people who sign up when their name or company name is recorded on a document. The system was launched in 2023 and has 70,000 registered members.

Mr. Heap’s other promises include improving the management of voter rolls, which Mr. Richer claims has been negligent, and providing election results more quickly.

“We need the election results by election night, just to be sure,” Heap said at a Trump rally in Glendale on Aug. 23.

But the recorder does not have the power to provide election results more quickly. Maricopa County Board of Supervisors he is in charge of voting on election dayand will also count the ballots.

And Arizona is never offered official results on election night. But the state has gone from being a place where Republicans have consistently won to a battleground state, with the vote count highly contested up and down and not decided until several days after the election. , no immediate results are obtained. It’s an issue for Republicans.

Tammy Patrick is an 11-year employee of Republican Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell and currently serves as the program’s CEO. election centertold the Mirror that one of the challenges surrounding the role of elected election managers is that candidates are not always aware of the limits of their power.

“It’s easy when you’re looking in from the outside to believe there’s a better way, but once you get inside and understand the complexity of what it means to run an election, it’s easy to believe that people “It’s not as simple as people believe,” Patrick said.

She said both Richer and his predecessor, current Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, may have learned that the hard way.

“I think the politics of election administration make it easy to cast doubts and dissent, and until we actually understand all the things that are already in place to enforce the legitimacy of the process, It’s much harder to come up with a legitimate way to improve.”

Who are the candidates?

Mr. Stringham and Mr. Heap are both attorneys from Arizona. Stringham graduated from Arizona State University, then joined the Army and served a tour of Afghanistan in 2012. He later earned a law degree from Notre Dame and became a human rights lawyer for the Navy. He is still a member of the Naval Reserve.

Heap also earned a bachelor’s degree from ASU and a law degree from the university’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law. He is a former prosecutor and civil liberties attorney who now runs his own law firm in Mesa, according to his campaign website. He has been a member of the state Legislature since 2023, and also served as vice chair of the Ways and Means Committee and as a member of the Elections Committee.

Shortly after taking office in January 2023, Mr. Heap came under fire for sending emails to lobbyists who requested meetings, asking whether they or their clients had donated to his campaign. Mr. Heap said he needed to prioritize meetings, seeming to suggest he was prioritizing based on who donated to his campaign.

Although Heap claimed to have met with lobbyists anyway, lobbyists said that’s not true And public records don’t support his story.

“He has emerged as a principled leader and passionate defender of limited government and conservative principles,” Heap said on his campaign website.

In 2010, less than a year after being admitted to practice law in Arizona, Heap was hired by the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office, but was fired three months later. KJZZ reported.

The reason for the dismissal is unclear, but a letter from the office manager at the time obtained by the public radio station said it was due to “unsatisfactory completion” of a probationary period.

what is the problem

There is a possibility that a person who does not believe in the legitimacy of the election and is supported by those who deny the election will be voted into election management position. Troublesome for election experts.

This scenario already played out when election deniers were elected county election officials in Montana and Colorado.

Cascade County, Montana, has been plagued by election troubles since election denier Sandra Marchant took office in 2023. Voted to revoke merchant election requirements.

Former Colorado County employee Tina Peters said: Sentenced to 9 years in prison to join us on Thursday Plan to compromise secure equipment In 2021, he went to his election office to find evidence that Colorado’s voting system was rigged.

“Regardless of what role a person plays in the process, if they ultimately do not believe in the legitimacy of the audited election, it will affect how they act in the future and how they will use it.” “I think it’s hard to know exactly what you’re going to do to take on some sort of oversized role,” Patrick said.

She also assured voters that safeguards are in place to ensure that no single election official wields too much power.

“But confusion can be sown in the meantime, and that’s never good for trust and confidence in the system as a whole,” Patrick said.