WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit against the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors on behalf of Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap for obstructing and interfering with election administration in the county. The lawsuit alleges that the Board is illegally attempting to seize control of statutorily delegated election operations by refusing to provide Recorder Heap with the resources necessary to fulfill his statutory duty to administer elections.

Under Arizona law, the Board is required to fund the necessary expenses of the Recorder's Office. However, the Board recently passed a tentative budget that permanently transfers the Recorder's key statutory duties to the Board and underfunds his office, denying him the resources needed to fulfill his statutory duties.

The dispute began due to a Shared Services Agreement (SSA) passed by a lame-duck Board in late 2024. When Recorder Heap took office in January, the Board removed nearly all of his election-related IT staff, took possession of his office's voter registration systems and websites, including the servers and equipment used to run them, denied his office access to designated office and warehouse space, and withheld access to county-owned equipment needed to conduct early voting.