New Maricopa County recorder Justin Heap has sued the County Board of Supervisors to force former recorder Stephen Richer, whom he handed over to the committee before taking office last year, to return certain election liability.
October, Richer, the board agreed to a new election service agreementshares the election management responsibilities held by the board and the recorder office. As part of the agreement, the supervisor will now oversee early voting processing. This includes overseeing and verifying the vote before it counts.
Liability removed from the Recorder’s office under a new agreement, such as early voting processing, may be supervised by the Board of Directors or Recorder under state law. Meanwhile, Heap maintained the duties assigned to county recorders by state law and the state election procedure manual.
The agreement also integrated the recorder’s information technology staff under the supervision of the board, which operates the election division that governs voting and management on most election days.
The change received little attention when it was adopted by Richer and past supervisors several weeks before the 2024 general election.
However, recently, the Heap, a wealthy defeat in the 2024 Republican primary, has cancelled its contract and tried to put pressure on the board to renegotiate.
“This back room, the 11-hour power grab, represents a reckless overreach by unpopular, crippled duck officials trying to put elected officials on their lap.
The issue came to mind at a meeting over the county’s budget on January 29th.
At the meeting, board chair Thomas Galvin said the decision to integrate IT staff was part of a county-wide effort to improve efficiency and avoid duplication of efforts, with both offices engaging in election management. He said he would point out that it would deal with such parts.
“For me, I want to minimize duplication as much as possible because I’m saving taxpayers money,” said the two current directors who were on the board when they adopted the new contract last year. Galvin, one of the members of the association, said:
HEAP requested more than $5 million to send IT staff and resources back to his office at the meeting.
“This has created challenges, especially in maintaining the legacy system we have and improving our voter registration system,” said Sam Stone, Chief of Staff of the Heap.
Heap canceled the contract shortly after entering the office, pointing out in a statement that “previous recorders and previous boards of directors are not binding or enforceable on current recorders and committees.”
Stone said during the Jan. 7 meeting he received legal advice from Thomas Liddy and Joseph Larreux of the Maricopa County Lawyers’ Office.
Heap, with his guidance, chooses to cancel the contract, return to the board’s table to revive the old election contracts, and provide recorders with more IT and early voting processing staff. I asked them to negotiate a new contract. “A costly legal battle.”
A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Lawyers’ Office declined to comment on the guidance given to the recorder, citing the privileges of the lawyer and client.
Stone said an outside lawyer was assigned to Handle Mata on February 11th.
Garvin opposed the characterization of the heap situation.
“The conversation between the board and its staff, and the recorder and his staff, has been going on for several weeks,” Galvin said in a statement. “In spite of the fact that the Recorder Heap statement is de facto, I do not consider this a ‘bat’. ”
Specifically, Galvin said the heap exaggerated the importance of changes made by the new contract, particularly when proposing that “almost all of the recorder’s election obligations have been transferred to the board.” .
Instead, Galvin said the deal transferred only early voting processing and oversight for IT staff to the oversight committee.
