Maricopa County’s Galvin says Heap is wasting time, taxpayer money with lawsuits

PHOENIX – Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin said Thursday that Recorder Justin Heap’s lawsuits are wasting time and taxpayer money.

Galvin denied that the board’s actions are preventing Heap, who took office in January, from completing his duties as recorder.

“He’s duly elected, but he’s wasted a lot of our time and voters’ time and taxpayer money by filing lawsuits,” Galvin told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Thursday.

Galvin said Heap has filed two lawsuits, one that seeks to take over all election duties and another requesting a temporary restraining order against a planned audit of the county’s elections systems.

Galvin believes the law is on the board’s side in both cases and expressed confidence that the judge will agree.

“The Board of Supervisors are tasked by state law with overseeing elections,” he said. “The Recorder’s Office is tasked with voter registration and early mail-in ballots. We just wish that the recorder would focus on his duties.”

Galvin said Heap already has a significant responsibility, because 80% of the county’s votes are cast through early mail-in ballots. He added that the county is currently running an all-mail jurisdictional election.

“He has a huge job and task at hand. … I want him to do well, but I think everyone in the community knows that these lawsuits are counterproductive,” Galvin said.

Thomas Galvin explains why audit is needed

Galvin said the purpose of the audit is to figure out how to properly separate the board and recorder IT staffs, which have been intertwined for decades.

“What we want to do is just divide it and say, ‘Mr. Heap, this is your stuff, and this is under the stuff for the Board of Supervisors, because we have our own elections department.’ And back in January, when he first came into office, he said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a great idea,’” Galvin explained.

However, Heap doesn’t like the fact that he wasn’t involved in the process to select the auditors. He also expressed concerns about giving a third-party vendor access to sensitive information about Maricopa County’s 2.6 million registered voters.

Galvin believes the disputes should be settled through negotiations, not lawsuits. In fact, he thought an agreement was in place after talks in April.

“We had a handshake deal. We were sitting across from each other, … looked at each other, shook hands,” Galvin said. “Unfortunately, what happened after that was that we never heard from him again for five weeks and then he filed a lawsuit where he says to the court, ‘Hey, I should control all of elections.’”

Did Justin Heap come into office planning to sue?

During his campaign last year, Heap was critical of the way elections were run in Maricopa County and vowed to restore faith in the system.

Heap and four of the five members of the Board of Supervisors, including Galvin, are Republicans.

Galvin believes Heap, who ousted incumbent Stephen Richer in the 2024 Republican Primary before winning the general election in November, was planning to sue the board over election operations even before he took office.

“I had met him in December for breakfast as a get-to-know-you and also to plan for the upcoming year. And he indicated as a clue that he was looking for a lawsuit,” Galvin said. “So, we know he’s been itching to do that, but we met with him continuously in good faith. I will still continue to do so. If he has any questions, he has my phone number.”

Related

Maricopa County recorder asks judge to stop Board of Supervisors' election system auditNew Maricopa County recorder signals shift away from combating disinformationCritic of Arizona’s elections operations unseats incumbent election official in GOP primaryAll eligible voters getting mail ballots for 2025 Maricopa County jurisdictional electionsJay Feely, Amish Shah win respective primaries, will face each other for CD-1Kimberly Yee wins GOP primary for Arizona schools chief over Tom Horne