The Board of Supervisors running Arizona’s largest county is illegally withholding key resources from the locality’s Republican elections chief that allow him to perform his lawfully mandated duties, a lawsuit filed Thursday claims.

Brought by Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, the legal complaint alleged that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) is refusing to “provide the necessary funds for the Recorder 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.” As argued in the suit, “Arizona’s statutes are clear: the Legislature has delegated to the Recorder, and not to the Board of Supervisors, numerous responsibilities for election administration, and the Board of Supervisors has a mandatory duty to fund the Recorder’s conduct of his duties.”

Heap is represented by America First Legal in the matter.

The conflict between Heap and the Maricopa County Board can be traced back to before the former took office in January.

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

Despite months of good-faith negotiations by Heap to renegotiate a new SSA and regain his office’s previously held powers and assets, the recorder was unable to strike a deal with the Board, culminating in Thursday’s lawsuit.

[READ: A Battle Over Election Administration Is Brewing In Arizona’s Largest County]

In his challenge, the GOP recorder argued that existing Arizona election laws “confer exclusive authority for specific duties to administer elections solely on the county recorders or solely on county boards of supervisors.”

“However, in more than a hundred places,” he contended, “Arizona’s election statutes delegate presumptive authority to either the county recorder or the board of supervisors but allow for a particular county’s board of supervisors and recorder to re-allocate those responsibilities to an ‘other officer in charge of elections.'”

“Accordingly, in 111 places, Arizona’s election statutes allocate authority to ‘the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections,’ and in 16 places, it designates the ‘county board of supervisors or other officer in charge of elections’ or ‘the board of supervisors or other authority in charge of elections,'” the lawsuit reads. “This overwhelming disparity demonstrates that the Legislature intended primary election authority and responsibility to be held by the Recorder generally, and that the Recorder is specifically responsible for all matters related to early voting and vote-by mail.”

Heap went on to claim that “the BOS is shirking its mandatory statutory duties and refuses to pay for [his] necessary expenses as evidenced by its vote and discussion on May 19th for the 2026 fiscal year tentative budget which did not fund all the necessary expenses for the conduct of [his] office.” He further argued, “The BOS has therefore ‘failed to perform a duty required by law for which they have no discretion.’”

“As Maricopa County Recorder, the Plaintiff has the right to administer early voting responsibilities delegated to him by statute and is beneficially interested in exercising such responsibilities,” the suit reads. “By refusing to comply with their obligation to provide funding adequate to allow Recorder Heap to discharge his other lawful duties unless he agrees to forfeit a significant portion of this right, the BOS has unlawfully precluded Recorder Heap from the use and enjoyment of the rights of the office to which he is entitled.”

Heap asked the Maricopa County Superior Court to issue a declaratory judgement and that “the BOS is required to fund all necessary expenses of the Recorder as set forth” in state law, as well as an order mandating the Board to take such actions. He additionally requested orders be issued prohibiting the BOS “from refusing to fund all necessary expenses of the Recorder” and “vacating” the Board’s “unlawful actions.”

Heap v. Maricopa County – Complaint by The Federalist

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