Maricopa County Recorder Heap Seeks Emergency Court Intervention After Criminal Investigation Of Election Workers

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap has asked the Maricopa County Superior Court for emergency intervention after sheriff’s deputies appeared at the homes of multiple Recorder’s Office employees and informed them they were under criminal investigation.

According to a Monday Recorder’s Office statement, the investigation stems from allegations made by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Elections Department involving election equipment at issue in the ongoing litigation between Heap and the Board.

Heap’s office said the disputed equipment was purchased with Recorder-controlled Early Voting funds, was never transferred to the Elections Department, and is among the election systems, resources, and operational assets the court previously ordered returned to the Recorder’s control.

“The Board is attempting to criminalize the lawful actions of election workers carrying out their duties with equipment owned by the Recorder’s Office,” the Recorder’s Office said in the statement.

🚨 BREAKING: LEGAL UPDATE
Yesterday, I filed an emergency motion with the Court after armed sheriff's deputies appeared at the homes of three Recorder's Office employees and informed them they were under criminal investigation.

This began after Maricopa County Attorney Rachel… https://t.co/u9dVaojbuN

— Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (@azjustinheap) June 8, 2026

Heap accused the Board of targeting Recorder’s Office personnel and said the investigation is part of a broader dispute over control of election operations in Maricopa County.

“This is not the first time the Board has made reckless and false accusations against employees of the Recorder’s Office,” Heap said in the statement. “Over the past year, multiple members of my senior staff have been forced to obtain outside legal counsel to defend themselves against baseless allegations and personal attacks. Members of this office have been threatened, doxed, and falsely accused in repeated attempts to intimidate them for simply doing their jobs.”

Heap also linked the investigation to the Board’s public statements about election workers.

“For weeks, the Board has attempted to convince the public that I somehow intend to seek criminal penalties against election workers for performing their duties,” Heap said in the statement. “That claim is a lie, and they know it. Yet, while making those false accusations, the Board was quietly pursuing criminal investigations and penalties against election workers employed by the Recorder’s Office.”

The emergency filing asks the court to order the return of the disputed equipment, halt what Heap described as retaliatory actions against Recorder’s Office personnel, and ensure compliance with the court’s prior orders before the 2026 Primary Election, according to the Recorder’s Office.

“The targeting of my staff is completely unacceptable,” Heap said. “No public employee should fear being threatened with criminal investigation for attempting to carry out a court-ordered responsibility. If this is how the Board treats career professionals behind closed doors, it explains exactly why meaningful cooperation has been impossible. The voters of Maricopa County deserve election administration governed by law, not intimidation.”

The Board responded Monday in a county bulletin, saying Heap’s legal motion and public statement required a response despite the Board’s general practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations involving county employees.

STATEMENT: Chair @KateMcGeeAZ and Vice Chair @DebbieLesko respond to Recorder’s latest court filing. pic.twitter.com/vPUVfxOAhE

— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) June 8, 2026

Board Chair Kate Brophy McGee and Vice Chair Debbie Lesko said the investigation involves an incident on March 12, when two Maricopa County Recorder’s Office employees were allegedly seen on closed-circuit security cameras removing a pre-tabulation scanner from the Maricopa County Election & Tabulation Center while results were being tabulated for the Tempe Jurisdictional Election, according to the county statement.

The supervisors said the Recorder’s Office CIO and another employee wheeled the scanner out of the building, loaded it into the back of a pickup truck believed to be a personal vehicle, and returned it approximately 50 minutes later after the county Elections Director alerted Recorder’s Office leadership. The Board described the scanner as controlled by the Board of Supervisors, according to the bulletin.

Brophy McGee and Lesko said Maricopa County Human Resources opened an internal inquiry and that the Recorder’s Office refused to participate. According to the county statement, the HR report substantiated the incident and found that the CIO had been notified in a March 5 inter-office message that the scanner was controlled by the Board’s Elections Department.

The county statement also alleged that, on the same day, the CIO removed what appeared to be a handful of provisional ballot affidavit envelopes from a secure area of MCTEC. Brophy McGee and Lesko said the envelopes potentially contained live ballots, creating chain-of-custody concerns. The supervisors said the investigation could not determine what occurred with the materials, but a count the following day found all ballots and envelopes had been accounted for, according to the bulletin.

County leadership shared the HR findings with the Recorder’s Office and consulted the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, according to Brophy McGee and Lesko. The supervisors said MCAO reviewed the report and appointed a special prosecutor to determine whether criminal activity occurred. That investigation remains ongoing, according to the county statement.

The Board also said it replaced the scanner at a cost of approximately $70,000, according to the bulletin.

The emergency filing comes amid the broader legal dispute between Heap and the Board over election administration authority. In April, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled in Heap’s favor in the dispute. The Recorder’s Office described the ruling as a “sweeping ruling” and said the court rejected the Board’s attempt to assert control over election functions assigned to the Recorder under Arizona law, according to an April 17 Recorder’s Office release.

The Associated Press reported in April that Judge Scott Blaney ruled the Board overstepped its authority by reallocating resources, personnel, and control of certain election functions from the Recorder’s Office, including drop box management and early voting site establishment.

The Recorder’s Office later said the court ordered the return of election IT staff, systems, databases, software, websites, and equipment to the Recorder’s control or immediate funding for replacement resources, according to a May 29 Recorder’s Office statement. Heap filed an Application for Order to Show Cause seeking to hold the Board in civil contempt, alleging the Board failed to comply with the April ruling.

The Board has appealed the ruling. In a May 4 release, the Board said it had filed a motion for a stay pending appeal and warned that the court ruling could cause “significant disruptions to election operations.”

The dispute remains pending as Heap seeks emergency court action over the investigation and the Board maintains that the March 12 scanner incident raised equipment-control and chain-of-custody concerns.