Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap filed new motions in his legal battle with the locality’s board of supervisors over key election administration responsibilities, according to a Monday announcement from Heap’s office.

Brought by America First Legal (AFL) on behalf of Heap, the first filing (motion for summary judgment) asks the Maricopa County Superior Court to issue an order demanding that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) “stop withholding funds for all [Heap’s] necessary expenses” as required by state law.

“The Defendants — the members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (‘BOS’) — have crossed from fiscal oversight into outright sabotage,” the filing reads. “Ignoring [state law] and decades of precedent, the BOS has refused to fund the Recorder’s ‘necessary expenses’ — from modern ballot-processing equipment to indispensable IT staff — while simultaneously seizing control of the very election functions its stonewalling endangers. The BOS’s obstruction is not mere bureaucratic foot-dragging; it is a calculated power grab that throttles the Recorder’s constitutional duty to administer secure, timely elections.”

As The Federalist previously reported, the dispute between the GOP recorder and the BOS goes back to the weeks preceding the 2024 presidential election.

Months after his defeat in Arizona’s July 2024 primaries and weeks before Heap’s eventual victory in the November general contest, then-Recorder Stephen Richer — a notable opponent of election integrity efforts — struck a deal with the BOS on a new Shared Services Agreement (SSA). The new contract effectively stripped key election administration responsibilities and resources from the recorder’s office and gave them to the BOS.

This prompted months of good-faith negotiations by Heap to renegotiate a new SSA and regain his office’s previous election administration powers. Unable to reach an agreement on a new deal, Heap filed a lawsuit against the board in June, in which he alleged the BOS unlawfully refused to “provide the necessary funds … to conduct essential duties of his office unless he cedes much of his statutory authority to the BOS and permits the BOS to retain control over the systems and personnel required for the Recorder’s Office to fulfill the Recorder’s statutory functions.”

In his motion for summary judgement, Heap claims that the BOS “has taken retaliatory actions” against him that “make it impossible for him to do his job, including removing nearly all his election-related IT staff; seizing the servers, databases, and websites necessary to fulfill his duties; and restricting access to necessary facilities and equipment.” These alleged actions, the Republican recorder maintains, “make it increasingly unlikely that elections in Maricopa County can be properly conducted.”

“The longer the County’s elections are unlawfully administered, the greater the risk of a catastrophic failure, voter disenfranchisement, and litigation over election mishaps,” the motion reads.

AFL also issued a second filing on behalf of Heap in a related matter involving Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.

According to the legal brief, “Attorney Mitchell originally appointed a criminal defense attorney to advise” Heap on his conflict with the BOS. In April 2025, however, the Republican recorder retained AFL “to provide pro bono representation for him in those negotiations,” a move Mitchell — who already had purportedly “appointed” an attorney for Heap — took issue with.

“When the Recorder complained that the original attorney appointed for him lacked sufficient subject matter expertise, County Attorney Mitchell appointed former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould to advise the Recorder only during negotiations with the Board,” Heap’s filing reads.

“However, County Attorney Mitchell and the Board did not allow Justice Gould to litigate on the Recorder’s behalf. … In May of 2025, Justice Gould specifically asked the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for permission to litigate on Recorder Heap’s behalf but was not allowed to do so because the scope of his representation was limited to negotiation of the SSA and did not include litigation, and, accordingly, the County would not compensate him for litigation-related work.”

Following the filing of Heap’s lawsuit against the BOS in June, Mitchell wrote a letter to Heap’s AFL attorney. The Maricopa attorney said in part, “This letter is to inform you that I am the Recorder’s attorney and that you do not represent the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office or Recorder Heap in his official capacity.”

Heap’s AFL attorney James Rogers responded shortly thereafter, arguing that the “County Recorder is allowed to pick his own lawyer in litigation” and “is not subject to the whims of the county attorney.”

Mitchell reportedly filed a legal complaint against Heap over the matter, according to the recorder’s filing.

Heap claims that these and other alleged actions by Mitchell included in his motion for judgment on the pleadings amount to Mitchell “weaponiz[ing] her office against an elected colleague … because he dared to resist the Board of Supervisors’ … unlawful stranglehold on his budget and operations.” The GOP recorder has asked the Maricopa County Superior Court to dismiss Mitchell’s complaint, “uphold [his] right to independent counsel, and reaffirm that wielding public office as a cudgel against political enemies finds no shelter in Arizona’s courts.”

2025-08-11 – Rec Heap MSJ Against MC BOS by The Federalist

2025-08-11 – Rec Heap MJP Against MCAO by The Federalist