Justin Heap and Tim Stringham. Photos by Michael Chow/Cheryl Evans | Arizona Republic/pool photos
Democratic newcomer Tim Stringham congratulated Republican state Rep. Justin Heap on Wednesday for what Stringham called Heap’s “likely win” in the race for Maricopa County recorder.
Stringham acknowledged in a post on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, that there were still plenty of votes to count and that “the outcome isn’t fixed,” but added that he “detest(s) procrastination.”
With almost 65% of votes counted as of around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, Heap was up by more than 3 percentage points, bringing in 51.8% of votes to Stringham’s 48.2%.
Heap declared victory on Wednesday, saying he was both “honored and humbled.”
“I am grateful for the trust that the voters have placed in me,” Heap wrote in a statement on X. “I intend to fulfill my promise of being a Recorder for every voter because protecting the integrity of our elections is an issue that impacts us all. It is undeniably true that past elections, under both parties and spanning more than a decade, have denigrated our county’s reputation and made us the laughing stock of the nation.”
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Heap went on to promise to work with the state legislature to develop an agenda that he said will make elections more efficient and honest, and to deliver election results more quickly.
During his time in the Arizona House of Representatives, Heap backed several proposed laws based on unproven election fraud conspiracy theories, like bills that would have banned electronic tabulation of ballots and forced hand counts, and that would have eliminated the option to vote early for most Arizonans.
The race for Maricopa County Recorder centered around election integrity in a county that for years has been a hotbed for election conspiracy theories, including the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
In the July 30 Republican primary election, Heap defeated outgoing Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who faced hate and ridicule from many members of his own party for his repeated assurances that the county’s elections were free, fair and transparent.
Heap has consistently refused to admit whether he believes the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen from top Republican candidates, as several of his allies in the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus have done. Heap credited the Freedom Caucus’s leader, Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman for providing support and encouragement throughout his campaign, and for Hoffman’s work as “the chief architect of my campaign strategy.”
Hoffman is one of Arizona’s 18 fake electors indicted in April for a scheme that aimed to install Donald Trump as the president after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
In his victory statement, Heap mentioned his plan to work with the Arizona Legislature to make changes to the state’s election procedures for good reason: Many of the changes he’s proposed, including to provide complete results on election night, are not within the control of the Maricopa County Recorder.
Last month, KJZZ reported that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, whose members have faced the same sort of ire aimed at Richer for their defense of the county’s elections, voted to take some election responsibilities away from the Recorder’s Office.
The board voted unanimously on Oct. 23 to approve an agreement with Richer that changes the division of election duties between the board and the Recorder’s Office. The shift happens Dec. 10, less than a month before Heap is set to take office.
The supervisors did not publicly discuss or make any comments about the agreement during the meeting, and their spokesman, Fields Moseley, told the Arizona Mirror that the changes in the recorder’s election duties were being made to “create efficiencies,” particularly in the IT department.
Moseley refused to answer questions from the Mirror about the timing of the decision to alter the duties of the Maricopa County Recorder, less than two months before someone who has called for hand-counting of ballots could take office. Moseley also declined to comment on what spurred the decision to revisit the division of election duties, or to say how long the supervisors had been considering the shift.
The agreement between the board and outgoing Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer also moves responsibility for the recorder’s information technology services — for both elections and document recording — from the Recorder’s Office to the Board of Supervisors.
The $5 million budget for the recorder’s IT services will also be moved to the board.
Per the agreement, the new recorder will continue to be responsible for maintenance of voter registration rolls, receipt of early ballot requests, early ballot affidavit signature verification and curing, and adherence to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
The Board of Supervisors discussed plans to make the change during a portion of their Oct. 21 meeting that was closed to the public. Closed sessions of otherwise public meetings are permitted by Arizona law only in specific circumstances, in this case for dissemination of legal advice.
Several lawyers from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, and Scott Jarrett, the director of the county’s Elections Department, were all involved in the conversation, according to the meeting agenda.
Stringham, who said he only ran to keep Heap out of the Recorder’s Office, acknowledged Wednesday that his opponent was the likely victor.
“I did indeed call @azjustinheap to congratulate him on a long campaign completed for both of us and wish him luck on his likely win in the County Recorder race,” Stringham wrote in the post on X. “Regardless, there are a lot of ballots to be counted and cured, so everyone should relax, take a breath, and then go help cure ballots.”
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