Arizona Supreme Court Restores Maricopa Recorder’s Authority With Narrow Interim Election Plan

The court’s order preserves current voting locations and procedures while giving Recorder Justin Heap full access to shared election systems to reduce disruption before the July 21 primary.

Overview

The Arizona Supreme Court on July 7 dissolved the Court of Appeals’ stay and reinstated Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney’s April injunction that defined which election duties belong to the recorder.
The high court adopted an interim plan that keeps existing voter-facing operations such as early voting sites, drop boxes and poll-worker assignments unchanged while requiring the Board of Supervisors to give Heap’s staff unfettered access to shared IT systems.
Blaney had found in April that the Board illegally withheld the recorder’s access to IT staff, servers and equipment or failed to fund replacements, a finding the Supreme Court endorsed in restoring the injunction.
The court rejected the appeals court’s use of the Purcell principle as a reason to deny the recorder his statutory authority and instead chose a narrowly tailored remedy intended to avoid changes that would confuse voters.
Key disputes remain unresolved outside of the order including which attorneys may represent county election matters and ongoing HR and criminal reviews of removed equipment, which could produce further legal fights before and after the primary.