Maricopa County Supervisor Who Stripped Recorder Justin Heap of Significant Control Over Elections Refuses to Reinstate it

Leading conservatives called out Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin, chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) who has been accused of stonewalling attempts to look into election wrongdoing, for refusing to give back election powers to Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap. Galvin, the only incumbent Republican supervisor left on the board, voted with the rest of the board in October to strip the recorder of significant powers. This went beyond the MCBOS removing about half of the recorder’s powers over elections after the 2018 election.

State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) posted on X, “Corruption in Maricopa County! Supervisor @ThomasGalvin has STRIPPED Recorder @azJustinHeap of his control over our Elections and is REFUSING to reinstate it.” He linked to an article at KJZZ about the vote transferring power last fall.

Hoffman added several follow-up posts explaining the situation. He said Galvin made the “backroom deal” that “STRIPPED” the recorder of “MOST of its significant election-related duties” less than 30 days before the November election, along with the “lame duck” supervisors whose terms were ending, and then-recorder Stephen Richer.

“They saw the writing on the wall that @AZFreedomCaucus member Rep. Justin Heap (who had already destroyed incumbent Stephen Richer in a three-way primary) was going to win the general election, so they executed this last ditch maneuver to strip the office of its ability to implement significant changes that would make our elections more secure,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said Galvin (pictured above, left) is refusing to give Heap back five areas of control:

  • Refusing to give Heap his full budget
  • Refusing to give Heap back his staff
  • Refusing to give Heap back his IT Department
  • Refused to give Heap access to key County buildings where the Recorder’s staff works
  • Refused to approve Heap’s Deputy Recorder pick

The November agreement also gave MCBOS the authority to appoint the board that processes early ballots, which includes an inspector and two judges from different political parties.

He said the behavior by Galvin is “outright corruption and an abuse of power.” Hoffman urged two of the new supervisors, former U.S. Representative Debbie Lesko and Chandler City Councilman Mark Stewart, to step in.

Merissa Hamilton, co-founder of the grassroots organization EZAZ, said Galvin does not have the authority to take those powers away from the recorder. “To demonstrate this is a fools errand and waste of tax dollars by @ThomasGalvin, similar cases have already been litigated and opinions issued by real AGs,” she posted on X. Every time the statutory Office wins against the BOS! GIVE @RecordersOffice @azjustinheap HIS STAFF AND RESOURCES! Be the adult in the room and have a meeting instead of litigation Mr. Chairman!”

She linked to a 2015 opinion from the Attorney General’s Office, which found that county supervisors cannot usurp the powers of other county offices. Then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich stated, “The BOS does not have the authority to withdraw cartography and title personnel from the control of the Yavapai County Assessor (‘Assessor’) given that the functions of those personnel are necessary for an assessor to perform its statutory duties.” The opinion cited Romley v. Daughton, where the appellate court held that county supervisors could not usurp the county attorney’s role in providing legal representation to other county departments.

Hamilton posted a screenshot from the MCBOS’s meeting, which revealed the supervisors were in talks with outside counsel likely about litigation. She warned, “Rather than be adults and have a reasonable conversation with the duly elected @RecordersOffice, it looks like @maricopacounty BOS has decided to go straight to litigation over their fools’ errand of bypassing the will of the voters! This is outrageous!”

She added in another post, “Ironically, @ThomasGalvin made the argument that the reason the duly elected @RecordersOffice can’t have an IT Department is because of fiscal conservatism — Yet the tax dollars being wasted on another lawsuit would likely fund a chunk of the budget needed to make the Recorder’s Office high-performing!”

Hamilton expressed confidence that Lesko and Stewart would disagree with Galvin and suggested one of them replace Galvin as chair.

She told The Arizona Sun Times there is a solution, “I have a bill that hopefully gets put on a striker next week which will clarify the phrase in statute that says ‘Recorder or other officer in charge of elections to clarify intent so that it’s crystal clear these duties all belong to the Recorder and cannot be hijacked by the BOS.”

State Senator J.D. Mesnard (R-Chandler) also dropped a bill, SB 1686, that would return powers over elections to county recorders.

State Representative Rachel Jones (R-Tucson) posted on X, “Someone please tell me why Maricopa County Supervisor @ThomasGalvin is railroading our new Recorder @azjustinheap? Mr. Galvin, why are you attempting to completely remove Recorder Heap from the election process? Are you afraid he’s going to deviate from the status quo? Do you want elections to continue to be an embarrassment in Maricopa County? @DebbieLesko are you and other members of the board supportive of this? The people demand to know the truth!!!”

Former state representative Jacqueline Parker posted on X, “At least if Heap can’t do the job because @ThomasGalvin is blocking him & insisting that he has to continue running AZ’s elections in a way that has made AZ a laughing stock, there will be SO much more time to watch every move Galvin makes & possibly start another recall…” She brought up Galvin’s history on the MCBOS in a follow-up post. “I guess we’ll see if the new board members are going to let Galvin drag them down like he did with the last board…”

ABC-15’s Garrett Archer responded to Parker and said she didn’t know how elections work, and that Heap doesn’t have authority over elections.

Tyler Bowyer, the COO of Turning Point USA and former chair of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, shot back, pointing out that the MCBOS had a bad relationship with the two previous recorders, Richer and Adrian Fontes. “Then why does the Board of Supervisors have to have an agreement with the County Recorder on who does what?” he asked. “The reality is that the BOS has been taking ground from the recorder now for many election cycles and had an extremely bad relationship with Fontes and Richer. That era needs to be reset and the BOS should be coming to the table with the Recorder to pen a new agreement for a new board and a new recorder. Knock off the intentional confusing the public, it’s really disturbing.”

Before Fontes became the recorder in 2018, the recorder had full control over elections, with the Maricopa County Elections Director reporting directly to the recorder. After Fontes was accused of botching the handling of the 2018 election, the MCBOS took away about half of his powers in that area, assuming responsibility for Election Day voting and emergency voting, and leaving the recorder to oversee early ballots.

While some counties have copied Maricopa and transferred some of the powers over elections to their county supervisors, others haven’t followed suit.

Three of the five supervisors from the previous term left office in early January, reportedly due to falling out of favor with the public over opposing election integrity. Supervisor Jack Sellers was defeated in the primary by conservative Stewart, who went on to win the general election. Supervisor Bill Gates, citing harassment over the issue, did not run for reelection. Supervisor Clint Hickman also declined to run for reelection. Hickman served as chair of the MCBOS during the 2020 election, and refused requests to stop vote tallying and delay certification of the results. The fifth supervisor, Democrat Steve Gallardo, is in a gerrymandered district and has held the office for years.

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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Thomas Galvin” by Thomas Galvin and “Justin Heap” by Justin Heap.