Maricopa Recorder Heap Says AZ SOS Fontes Failed to Provide Felony Records Needed to Clean Voter Rolls

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is accusing Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes of failing to provide current federal felony-conviction records, warning that missing data is preventing his office from identifying ineligible voter registrations ahead of the November general election.

In a statement posted to X, Heap said the most recent federal felony report his office received covers only the second quarter of 2025. His office also alleged substantial gaps in records dating to 2022 and said the secretary’s office has been unable or unwilling to confirm whether previously supplied records are complete.

RECORDER HEAP: SECRETARY OF STATE’S FAILURE TO PROVIDE FELONY RECORDS JEOPARDIZES VOTER REGISTRATION LIST MAINTENANCE AHEAD OF GENERAL ELECTION
PHOENIX, Arizona — Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is calling on Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to immediately address… pic.twitter.com/Z4j6muumN4

— Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (@azjustinheap) September 22, 2026

“This is not a minor administrative delay. It is a failure that directly affects our ability to keep the voter rolls accurate,” Heap said.

“Arizona law requires my office to cancel the registration when we receive qualifying felony-conviction information. But we cannot remove an ineligible elector we have not been told about.”

Under A.R.S. § 16-165(A)(4), county recorders must cancel registrations upon receiving qualifying felony-conviction notices from a court or the secretary of state, or qualifying disclosures on signed juror questionnaires. Arizona’s voter eligibility statute, A.R.S. § 16-101(A)(5) bars people convicted of felonies from registering unless their civil rights have been restored.

Heap’s office said the announcement followed months of administrative outreach and technical follow-up by county election officials.

Beyond the missing records, Heap alleged that Fontes’ office has supplied statewide PDF reports instead of importing the information into the statewide voter registration system. That leaves county employees manually identifying Maricopa County records, checking them against registration information and entering the data individually, according to the recorder’s statement.

The 2025 Elections Procedures Manual, published by the secretary’s office and governing procedures for the 2026 election, assigns that electronic processing responsibility to the secretary of state.

On page 43, the manual specifies that felony-conviction information received in non-electronic formats from Arizona superior courts and the U.S. Department of Justice is converted into the proper electronic format and imported into the statewide registration system.

The system then checks for matches against existing registrations. Records meeting its specified matching criteria are automatically canceled, while less conclusive matches are flagged for individual review by county recorders. The manual also requires county recorders to send cancellation notices and says those notices should explain where registrants can obtain information about restoring their rights.

Federal law separately establishes the notification responsibilities for federal felony convictions. Under 52 U.S.C. § 20507(g), U.S. attorneys must notify the chief election official in an offender’s state of residence. That state official must then notify the appropriate local voter registration officials of the information received.

Heap also argued that forcing counties to develop their own manual workarounds undermines uniform statewide administration. He cited 52 U.S.C. § 20507(b)(1), which requires voter list-maintenance programs for federal elections to be uniform, nondiscriminatory, and consistent with the Voting Rights Act.

The recorder’s statement did not identify how many currently registered voters might be affected by the missing data or document any ballots cast by ineligible individuals.

Heap is demanding that Fontes obtain complete and current federal conviction data, account for gaps in earlier reports, confirm the completeness of the records supplied to counties and restore electronic imports into the statewide system.

“The Secretary of State has allowed the federal felony data to fall years behind, cannot assure us that prior records are complete, and has made the limited records we do receive harder to process,” Heap said.

“With the General Election approaching, this needs to be fixed now. County recorders are prepared to do our job. The Secretary of State needs to do his.”

The Secretary of State’s Office did not respond to California Globe’s request for comment by publication.