Heap prevails at Arizona Supreme Court as justices reject Maricopa supervisors’ election duty grab

The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap in the ongoing fight between him and the county board of supervisors over election duties. 

In a unanimous order, the state’s highest court vacated a June ruling from the Arizona Court of Appeals, and reinstated injunctions put in place in April that required the board of supervisors to “fund all necessary expenses of the Recorder.” 

Since Heap took office in January 2025, the Republican recorder and the Republican-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have battled over who was responsible for which election duties. 

Arizona law divides election duties between county boards and recorders, generally giving county supervisors control over election day voting, and recorders control over early voting. 

After Heap won the 2024 Republican primary for Maricopa County Recorder, and before the general election that he was considered likely to win, the board of supervisors signed an agreement with Heap’s predecessor to shift the recorder’s IT department to be under the board’s control.

Heap is allied with election deniers who promote baseless conspiracies about elections in Arizona and nationwide, and as a legislator he backed sweeping changes to state law based on those evidence-free claims that President Donald Trump and other Republicans lost their elections because of fraud and other malfeasance.

Heap terminated that agreement shortly after he took office, and has been feuding with the Board of Supervisors since then. In June 2025, he sued the board over their election duties dispute. 

“Today’s unanimous decision is a decisive victory for the rule of law,” Heap said in a statement following Tuesday’s ruling.

In Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney’s April order, he directed the Board of Supervisors to return “IT staff, servers, databases, software, websites, and equipment” that were controlled by the recorder before the October 2024 agreement or to immediately fund their replacement. 

Blaney also blocked the supervisors from undertaking duties that are prescribed to the recorder by law. The supervisors sought to delay that order, and Blaney denied it. 

In June, Heap asked the court to hold the Board of Supervisors in contempt for failing to comply with Blaney’s orders. 

In the meantime, the supervisors sought a stay of Blaney’s orders from the Arizona Court of Appeals, writing that it was too close to the July 21 primary election, with the poll worker manual already finalized to purchase new election equipment or to change protocols. 

The supervisors argued based on past case law that changes so soon before the primary would pose the “dangers of burdening elections workers and complicating the voting experience.” 

In a divided decision, the appeals court agreed, and issued a stay of Blaney’s orders. 

Heap appealed that decision to the Arizona Supreme Court, which rejected the board of supervisors’ argument that, because it controls the funding for early voting, it can allocate that funding to the Maricopa County Elections Director to perform early voting duties. 

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 high court opted to vacate the appeals court stay, and to reinstate Blaney’s order, with changes outlined in a 12-point interim operational protocol that Heap had earlier proposed to ensure that the primary election isn’t impacted. 

“To the extent issues can be resolved without disrupting procedures that are actually ongoing in the primary election process, the Court wishes to do so,” Timmer wrote. 

Heap celebrated his win. 

“My office is ready to implement the Court’s order and deliver secure, lawful, and professional elections for the people of Maricopa County,” he wrote in the statement. 

In a joint statement, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kate Brophy McGee and Vice Chairwoman Debbie Lesko said they were disappointed in the ruling.

They added that the board had just reached consensus with Heap on Monday evening, following two days of mediation that had earlier been ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court. 

“Our primary concern has always been, and remains, Maricopa County’s 2.6 million voters,” they wrote. “The Board will follow the law and abide by the court’s decision, and we look forward to Recorder Heap’s plans in terms of how he intends to exercise his newfound authority to administer lawful, high-quality elections this year and beyond.”