Supervisors blast Heap for ‘felony’ threat before routine drop box vote

In an ominous letter to the county board, the Maricopa County Recorder’s attorney suggested on Wednesday that election employees could face “criminal exposure” — potentially including jail time — if the board approved the use and locations of voting drop boxes.

That came as news to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who had a seemingly routine resolution before them to do just that. Members of the board sized up the letter, righteously ripped into County Recorder Justin Heap and unanimously passed the resolution before them, 5-0.

“He is purposely trying to corrupt this election,” said Steve Gallardo, the lone Democrat among the five county supervisors. “He never intended to make sure our elections were safe, secure, transparent.”

The drama was just the latest, if perhaps most tense, showdown between the two offices most directly responsible for running elections in Maricopa County, the country’s fourth-largest voting district. Since entering office last year, Heap, a MAGA Republican, has persistently stirred up hostilities with the Republican-majority Board of Supervisors.

The board members voted on a resolution to authorize the use and locations of voting centers, emergency vote centers and secure drop boxes for the upcoming July 21 primary election. It’s a procedural move required by state statute ahead of every election.

Ahead of the vote, Kate Brophy McGee, the board chair, revealed that this meeting would hold more sizzle than usual.

“Today, Mr. Heap’s attorney wrote to say if we accept ballots from voters the way we always have,” she said, “we and our staff will be prosecuted.” 

Brophy McGee was referencing a letter from James Rogers, Heap’s attorney. In the letter, sent Wednesday morning, Rogers argues that the Board doesn’t have the authority to “establish and maintain drop boxes for the deposit of early ballots during the early voting period.” Rogers maintains that only Heap has the authority to establish drop boxes during early voting and that those ballots can only be delivered to Heap.

Rogers cited the Arizona Revised Statutes to argue that Board members and “any employees who participate in establishing or staffing unauthorized drop boxes” could face criminal exposure, which would be a class 5 felony — which the Arizona Revised Statutes say carry up to two and a half years in prison. Rogers added that a Board employee who collects ballots at drop boxes without the Recorder’s authority could be charged with a class 6 felony, which carries up to two years in prison.

“These are serious felonies,” Rogers wrote in the letter. “The Board should not proceed with a resolution that exposes its members and employees to criminal prosecution simply because it wishes to assert control over a function that the Legislature has assigned to the Recorder.” 

Phoenix New Times reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office about this threat and whether the office would consider such charges if referred. Spokesperson Erin Pellett noted that Rogers has “no prosecutorial authority” and said beyond that, the office has no comment. 

For almost a year now, Heap’s office and the board of supervisors have been arguing over who oversees parts of the county’s election system under a document called a Shared Services Agreement. Last month a county judge ruled that the county board illegally removed the information technology staff from the recorder’s office.

Ahead of the vote on Wednesday, four members of the Board slammed the letter for, in Brophy McGee’s words, “threatening to criminally charge employees for doing their duties.” She said she asked Heap to attend the meeting to testify that afternoon, but he didn’t show. Vice Chair Debbie Lesko said the recorder’s office could refer county election employees, including temporary election workers, for criminal charges for “merely doing their job.” 

Supervisor Thomas Galvin denounced Heap for “cooking up more games” and said that “if anyone tries to put handcuffs on those volunteers, the four of us will be the first ones to step in front of them and say, ‘Take us.’”

Gallardo slammed Heap as “totally out-of-touch” and “incompetent.” Heap has surrounded himself with “political hacks,” Gallardo continued, and “wants the 2026 election to fail.”

Only Mark Stewart, a Republican supervisor who has become a lone wolf on the board for his abiding support of Heap, didn’t condemn the letter. He did admit the letter is “rough” and “somewhat egregious,” but criticized Brophy McGee for not reaching out directly to Heap about this further in advance, adding that the letter could have been prevented with “a simple phone call.”

He introduced a motion to allow Heap 10 days to make any changes to the election drop box list. It didn’t receive a second and failed.

“I wish a simple phone call would have solved it,” Lesko said, sounding exasperated. 

During the meeting, election staff made it clear that for months they had been in ongoing discussions with the recorder’s office about the vote centers and the resolution. After the meeting, Heap’s office issued a statement saying it was “never consulted on the proposed drop box locations” and “only learned of them after the Board publicly posted its agenda yesterday.” 

The statement quoted Heap: “Voters deserve lawful, professional election administration, not political gamesmanship and last-minute public ambushes.”