By Arizona Agenda
Mail-in voting in Arizona’s primary election starts in a few weeks, and the two entities that run elections in the state’s most populous county are turf-warring in a political and legal feud that has dragged on for months.
But let’s face it: You’ve probably heard about the battle between Republican Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap and the GOP-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. But unless you’re an elections expert or policy nerd, it’s pretty difficult to follow and even harder to get a picture of what it all means without getting bogged down by the wonkish details and piecemeal updates.
Today, we’re gonna try to help.
On the surface, the fight is over the division of responsibilities between the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the County Recorder, which the two parties are trying to resolve through two separate avenues: negotiations and a legal battle in the courts.
While the dispute shows up publicly as a technical turf war over staffing and duties, what’s driving it is the supervisors’ calcified view that Heap is just not competent enough to be trusted with executing key administrative functions.
Republican Supervisor Debbie Lesko — who supported Heap’s campaign for office and voted to overturn the results of Arizona’s 2020 presidential election when she was in Congress — has led the way on trying to be the board’s Heap whisperer.
But it seems that even she can’t break through.
On Wednesday, she and Chair Kate Brophy McGee sent Heap a letter requesting negotiations “occur in the light of day, not in secret,” but she said on Twitter that Heap responded by requesting the conversations stay behind closed doors.
