By Caitlin Sievers | AZ Mirror
For the third time in as many elections, Maricopa County voters will choose a new recorder this year in a hotly contested race centered around election integrity.
On Nov. 5, voters will pick between a Democratic newcomer who says the need for improvements in the county’s elections doesn’t warrant a free fall into conspiracy theories and a first-term Republican state representative who said the county’s elections have made Maricopa a “national laughing stock” and who supports total hand counts.
State Rep. Justin Heap, R-Mesa, has consistently skirted questions asking whether he believes the 2020 and 2022 elections in the county were stolen from top-of-the-ticket Republicans. Instead, he has repeatedly answered that he wants to restore Arizonans’ eroded trust in their elections.
“If voters can’t trust the system, they will simply walk away and stop voting and voters of all parties — this isn’t limited to the Republicans in the primary — this is Republicans, Democrats, independents all report large numbers who do not have confidence in the system,” Heap told “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons in a June interview. “That is a product of how we run the system, not of any misinformation that is spread online.”
