Arizona court shifts Maricopa election powers back to recorder

A legal fight moves into election operations

The Arizona Supreme Court has revived injunctions that limit how Maricopa County supervisors can assign election duties, giving Recorder Justin Heap the stronger hand while litigation continues over who controls key parts of the county's voting system.azfreenews The July 7 en banc order vacated a Court of Appeals stay and restored a Superior Court ruling, with temporary changes meant to avoid disruption during the July 21 primary.azfamily

The dispute turns on Arizona statutes that assign tasks to the "county recorder or other officer in charge of elections." Heap says that language points to the recorder or someone the recorder designates; supervisors argued their budget and administrative powers let them place those functions under a board-appointed elections director.abc15

The justices narrowed the board's leverage

Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer wrote that supervisors cannot use funding authority to "usurp an independently elected officer's statutory functions," rejecting the board's argument on the central statutory issue.azfreenews +1 The restored lower-court orders require supervisors to fund necessary recorder expenses and return or replace IT staff, servers, databases, software, websites and equipment that had been under the recorder's control before an October 2024 agreement.azfreenews

The ruling does not end the underlying appeal, but it signals that Heap is likely to prevail on the statutory interpretation question.aflegal The high court also faulted the appeals court for giving too much weight to the Purcell principle, which warns courts against election-rule changes close to voting, without completing Arizona's stay analysis.azfamily

Voter-facing changes are supposed to be limited

The court adopted a 12-point interim plan proposed by Heap's attorney to keep the primary running while authority shifts behind the scenes.azfamily +1 Under accounts of the plan, existing voting locations, drop boxes, operating hours, poll-worker assignments, ballot formats, tabulators and other voter-facing procedures are not expected to change for the primary.kjzz +1

Board Chair Kate Brophy McGee and Vice Chair Debbie Lesko said they were disappointed because the decision directs changes during an ongoing election, but added that supervisors would follow the law and that the county's 2.6 million voters remain their priority.azmirror +1 Heap called the decision a victory for the rule of law and said his office was ready to administer secure and professional elections.azfamily

The fight is not over

Maricopa County is one of the country's largest election jurisdictions, with more than 2 million voters and an outsized role in statewide and national contests.abc15 That scale makes the court's interim approach especially important: the recorder gains final say over areas such as early voting, voter registration and election records, while the board retains responsibilities including precincts, polling places, ballot preparation, central counting and canvassing.kjzz

Either side can still ask the Court of Appeals for additional temporary modifications, and unresolved factual disputes may return to Superior Court.[0] Heap has also submitted what his office described as a court-aligned settlement proposal, leaving the county's election chain of command in motion even after the Supreme Court's intervention.[0]