Attorney General Kris Mayes pushes back on felony threat in Maricopa election dispute

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes weighed in Friday on Maricopa County election politics as she rejected claims that election workers could face felony charges for collecting ballots from drop boxes designated by the Board of Supervisors.

Earlier this week, the supervisors voted to designate 12 drop box locations for the July 2026 primary election. Ten of the drop boxes are located in city government buildings and two are under camera surveillance at elections department offices in downtown Phoenix and Mesa.

The drop box approval drew a legal threat from County Recorder Justin Heap, whose attorney argued that only the recorder has authority under Arizona law to establish drop boxes. The letter argued that board members and employees who collect ballots from unauthorized boxes could face felony charges under the state’s ballot harvesting statute.

Justin Heap is wrong about drop boxes. He should immediately work with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in good faith to ensure a well run election.

Full letter: pic.twitter.com/KnxEqpgx6c

— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) May 22, 2026

That is what caused Mayes to weigh in.

“I consider it my duty to speak here,” Mayes wrote in a response letter. “By voting to designate drop box locations, board members did not become criminals. And, by collecting ballots at these drop box locations, board employees would not become criminals.”

Mayes said the board was following established practice and rejected the argument that a drop box qualifies as an early voting location under state law.

“As a matter of common sense, a drop box is not an early voting location,” Mayes wrote in a letter posted to social media. “It is simply a place to deposit a voted and sealed early ballot packet … Indeed, if Recorder Heap’s counsel were correct, every mailbox in the state would be an early voting location, and every mail carrier could be accused of illegally harvesting ballots.”

Mayes urged both sides to avoid disrupting election preparations.

“For the sake of election stability, the time to seek a departure from established practice is not now,” she wrote. “And the manner of seeking such a departure is not to make unfounded threats of criminal liability.”

Debbie Lesko calls felony threat over election drop boxes ‘outrageous’

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Debbie Lesko, who has been among the most vocal critics of Heap’s approach, on Friday called the letter from Heap’s attorney “outrageous.”

“It was an outrageous letter that we got Wednesday morning,” Lesko said on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show. “I honestly do not understand why Justin Heap would want to criminalize election workers. … That’s just insane to me.”

Lesko said she has repeatedly tried to get Heap to the table to hammer out differences but has not heard back. She added that the recorder’s own chief of staff had previously agreed to an election plan in writing, only for Heap to reverse course.

“Sam Stone, who is the chief of staff for Recorder Heap, and our elections director, Scott Jarrett, have been working out the details on the 2026 election. And I have an email from Sam Stone agreeing to the election plan for 2026,” Lesko said. “But then a few days later, Recorder Heap sent a letter to us saying, ‘No, Sam Stone said that in error, the only person you can talk to is my lawyer, James Rogers.'”

This week’s dispute is the latest escalation in a yearlong legal battle between Heap and the board of supervisors over election responsibilities.

Maricopa County’s primary election is July 21.

See the full board’s reaction to the letter:

 

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