The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has approved a new policy outlining procedures for election operations in the absence of a Shared Services Agreement (SSA) with the Recorder’s Office. The move comes after ongoing disagreements between the Board and Recorder Justin Heap over how to divide responsibilities related to elections.
“Justin Heap likes to make a big deal about separation of powers, yet he repeatedly runs to the judicial branch to intervene in matters that should be worked out between elected officials,” said Chair Kate Brophy McGee, District 3. “Since Mr. Heap has not provided a serious response to our latest SSA offer, we felt it was important to state publicly and transparently how we will go about navigating some of most contentious issues between our respective offices so that we can ensure elections run smoothly and securely for Maricopa County voters.”
On February 11, 2026, the Board presented Recorder Heap with a new SSA proposal intended to address his stated concerns. According to the Board, this offer would give Heap’s office control over early in-person voting and define information technology (IT) responsibilities.
Despite these concessions, the Board reports there has been no meaningful engagement from Recorder Heap regarding their proposal. The newly adopted resolution sets policies on IT separation, in-person early voting, and additional budget requests—issues raised by Heap—in order to clarify roles while respecting statutory rights.
Shared service agreements are designed to outline roles and responsibilities for running elections according to state law. They help address ambiguous legal areas and can create efficiencies that save money and time. The latest proposal from the Board includes additional IT positions for the Recorder’s Office until systems can be separated fully, partnership on selecting vote center locations following federal civil rights laws, joint troubleshooting at voting sites, poll worker training collaboration, and hiring temporary recruiters together.
“Justin Heap wants control of all IT functions; we offered to split them. He wants control of in-person early voting; we’re fine with that. This is a fair offer,” said Vice Chair Debbie Lesko, District 4. “The ball is in the Recorder’s court. All he has to do is reply.”
Negotiations over an SSA date back at least as far as April 2025 when Supervisor Galvin and Brophy McGee met with Recorder Heap and his staff. At that time, Heap indicated via text message that they were close to agreement on most issues but still needed to resolve details around splitting IT teams.
A draft SSA was sent by outside counsel based on those points of agreement. However, when Recorder Heap responded in May 2025, he made numerous changes—170 in total—and labeled it his “final offer.” Following this exchange, he filed a lawsuit against the Board.
“We thought we had a deal and then we got sued. It was totally unnecessary and a complete waste of tax dollars,” said Supervisor Thomas Galvin, District 2. “Fortunately, the judge in the case has been encouraging us to work this out on our own, which is what we have been attempting to do and what we will continue to work toward.”
During today’s public meeting, Recorder Heap addressed the Board directly after being required by unanimous vote last week—using authority under ARS § 11-253—to provide both a written report and sworn testimony regarding claims of voter disenfranchisement involving his office.
“I’ve worked in elections. I’ve worked with recorders from both major political parties. I’ve never seen a recorder so blatantly and flagrantly thumb his nose at the voters by not being transparent, by refusing to answer questions until he’s literally compelled by law to show up,” said Supervisor Steve Gallardo, District 5. “That said, I look forward to reading the report Recorder Heap and his team compiled. It is vital information for the Board to have so that we can budget for the upcoming elections and help people vote confidently in 2026.”
Meanwhile, educational data shows ongoing challenges for students in Maricopa County: In recent years more than half of students failed key standardized tests including mathematics sections on both AASA (62.9% failure rate among grades 3-8 during 2022-23) https://www.azed.gov/ as well as ACT (65% failure rate among high schoolers during 2022-23) https://www.azed.gov/. English language proficiency also remains low with similar failure rates across both grade levels https://www.azed.gov/.
Recent results indicate modest improvement: For example, approximately one-third (33.9%) of high schoolers passed math on ACT during 2023-24 https://www.azed.gov/, while about 36% of students in grades 3 through 8 passed math on AASA during that same period https://www.azed.gov/.
