Election equipment dispute escalates into criminal investigation in Maricopa County
A power struggle between a Maricopa County, Arizona, elections official and the board of supervisors over an alleged theft of ballot-counting equipment is the subject of a criminal investigation.
At the heart of this fight lies a Republican election head who questioned the validity of the 2020 general election and a majority GOP county board.
It began with allegations that employees within the recorder’s office improperly removed election equipment and ballot-related materials from a secure county facility.
Now, the battle has ended up in court and with a special prosecutor investigating.
Court battle
Members of the county’s board said those employees were seen on closed-circuit TV taking a scanner and provisional ballot envelopes from the county’s vote tabulation headquarters while a local election was underway.
“This is just kind of insane,” Debbie Lesko, Maricopa County supervisor, told AZ Family.
Recorder Justin Heap, who’s a known 2020 election denier, said he wanted possession of the scanner and that it belongs to his office.
Republican members of the county’s board dispute that claim.
Heap’s claim came in the most recent legal filing in this case.
“I filed an emergency motion with the Court after armed sheriff’s deputies appeared at the homes of three Recorder’s Office employees and informed them they were under criminal investigation,” Heap wrote on X.
Heap’s office argues that the workers committed no wrongdoing and that the investigation is part of a broader conflict over control of election operations in Maricopa County.
Board members disagreed and laid out a timeline of the incident on X.
They said the scanner and envelopes were taken and placed into a personal vehicle before being returned nearly an hour later, after the county elections director alerted the recorder’s office.
“What I saw on video was Justin Heap’s chief information officer taking an election machine out of an election building, putting it in what seems to be a private truck, hauling it off over to the recorder’s office,” Lesko said.
The scanner was later replaced at a cost of $70,000 because officials weren’t sure what the recorder’s office employees did with it.
Special prosecutor
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell initially led the investigation but later recused herself since she represents both the recorder’s office and the board of supervisors.
That’s where former Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer comes in.
He told Votebeat he was hired in April to investigate and that the investigation is now “wrapping up.”
He has not shared many details of the active investigation, but is looking to determine whether there was any “criminal behavior.”
Ongoing dispute
All of this comes just ahead of the Arizona primaries, which are set for July 21.
This power struggle between Heap and the board has been going on for the better part of the year.
Heap sued supervisors over election powers. A court ruled in his favor, ordering the board to move several election-related functions back to Heap’s office.
The judge ruled that any election duties included in any law that mentions the recorder’s office belong to the recorder’s office. That goes the same for any that mention the board.
The two sides have also argued over whether poll workers should be informing voters that they don’t need to show identification at voting sites. Just last month, they sparred over ballot drop boxes.
Heap’s attorney said election workers could be jailed for setting up any drop boxes approved by the board but not approved by the recorder’s office.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
