Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap said he cut funds, eliminated six positions in the office’s external communications team, and reduced the size to one person.
Heap of Republicans, who took office in January, said in an update Friday that the previous recorder had too much focus on external political communication.
“In response, we removed the pay and positions of six external communications personnel and freed up resources for the improvements needed to develop and manage key databases and electronic systems,” the supervisor.
According to HEAP Chief of Staff Samuel Stone, the office will maintain one external communications staff and six “voter information” communications teams.
A spokesman for the recorder’s office confirmed that the employee of the communication in question resigned before the heap acquired the office, and the heap filled these vacant positions to allocate its funds elsewhere. I have decided not to.
Heap’s announcement shows a departure from the philosophy of his predecessor, Stephen Richer. Stephen Richer is a Republican who spent four years actively defending how elections were run in Maricopa County and how votes were counted. Battleground County is a near-constant target of vote-related disinformation, conspiracy theory and threats, and since 2020 President Donald Trump’s false claims about stolen elections have made voters suspect a legitimate outcome. This has increased rapidly.
Richer told The Associated Press last year that he had not dedicated full-time staff to monitor false or misinformation or online threats, but his communications team took on some of the work. . He said they worked with the Superintendent’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office and local police.
Richer also responds directly to users using their accounts on social platform X, explains the facts about how voting and voting counts worked, and corrects incorrect posts that are going viral. I personally regularly intervened.
Heap “doesn’t think it would be appropriate for government agencies to police ‘misinformation’ online,” Stone said in an email to the Associated Press. He said any future threats to election officials will be dealt with by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
The Heap, who was richly wealthy in the Republican primary last year and defeated another Democratic candidate in November, stopped saying that the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen. He says voters don’t trust the state’s voting system because the state’s voting system is insufficient.
“It’s not because they believe in misinformation on social media,” Heap said during a June discussion. “That’s because we’re experiencing the same issues that happen after the election cycle, and we can’t even accept that this is a big problem and address the concerns.”
Heap has announced plans that he will improve voter confidence in the election. This involves culling inactive voters from the role and allowing election observers to watch the process of verifying signatures with early votes.
His pivot, which moves away from fixing election disinformation, is consistent with the Trump administration, which has spoken out by claiming it is not a government place. Trump opposed what the government calls “censorship” of American citizens and ordered federal employees to do nothing last month to abolish legal American speeches.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect Maricopa County recorder Justin Heap Cut funds, eliminating six external communication positions.
