Overview
- The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to approve vote-center and drop-box locations at a meeting Wednesday despite a letter from the county recorder’s attorney claiming the board lacks that authority.
- Recorder Justin Heap’s lawyer, James Rogers, wrote that only the recorder can designate drop-boxes and warned that establishing or staffing unauthorized boxes could amount to a class 5 felony.
- The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Rogers has no prosecutorial power, and county elections staff said they had coordinated drop-box planning with the recorder’s office for months.
- A recent county ruling by Judge Scott Blaney sorted some recorder and board duties but did not resolve which office controls drop-boxes, leaving the question legally unsettled as the board has appealed parts of that decision.
- The dispute deepens a partisan feud that has already disrupted election operations, and it raises concrete risks to voter access and to temporary workers who staff drop boxes as the July 21 primary approaches.