Justin Heap to reinstate ballot access for 25 citizens after mediation with Arizona officials
The voters' ballot access being restored came after a judge told the county recorder and state officials Friday to sit down together and fix the issue.
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is expected to reinstate voting status for 25 people following mediation efforts with state officials Friday. (Photo via Maricopa County Superior Court and Getty)
(Photo via Maricopa County Superior Court and Getty)
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is expected to reinstate voting status for 25 people, who were all confirmed U.S. citizens, following mediation efforts with state officials Friday, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced.
The announcement came after Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes sued Heap earlier this week. They wanted a judge to put the 25 voters back on the active rolls and make sure they get their ballots. During a Friday hearing, the judge told the county recorder and state officials to sit down together and fix it.
The problem traces back to a glitch in state driver’s license records. For years, it let some longtime voters register without the proof of citizenship Arizona requires.
In February, Heap ran about 61,000 of those voters through SAVE, a federal citizenship database known to make mistakes. It flagged 207 people as possible noncitizens. Heap marked them “not eligible,” which means no mail ballot, and sent their names to prosecutors.
In September, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said that 52 of the 60 flagged voters who had cast ballots before were citizens and only eight were not.
Heap cleared 27 of the 52, leaving the other 25 blocked.
Mayes and Fontes said Heap had no right to downgrade them in the first place.
Under state law, they argued, a recorder needs proof that someone isn’t a citizen, not just a database flag. They also want the 25 to get regular ballots, not provisional ones that may not count.
“It should not have taken litigation to make Justin Heap follow the law — that is his duty and the duty of all election officials,” Mayes said in the annoucement.
Before the hearing, Heap told KTAR News 92.3 FM the voters’ citizenship wasn’t in question, the paperwork was.
“Look, if they’re citizens, and we’re not arguing they’re not, the problem is that Arizona requires that we have documented proof of citizenship, and I can’t find anywhere in the law that states that we can just take another agency’s word for it,” Heap said Thursday.
In court Friday, the attorney general’s office said it had the voters’ driver’s license records ready and Heap’s attorney, James Rogers, said the recorder could restore the voters that day once he reviewed them.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Heidi Hommel and Kylie Werner contributed to this report.
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Comments
4 Comments
Hopefully all 25 of these US citizens are paying attention and vote against the party that’s trying to disenfranchise them.
"...Arizona requires that we have documented proof of citizenship, and I can’t find anywhere in the law that states that we can just take another agency’s word for it,”
Said "agency" (SAVE) is NOT a complete and definitive registry of U.S. citizens. It's known to have missing, inconsistent and out of date info yet Heap Big is trying to use it alone to disenfranchise these 25 voters. Anyone shocked?
Muckraker went undercover in Arizona to investigate the groups working to re-elect Gov. Katie Hobbs and other Democrats. The reporter never completed the registration process as that would be illegal. When confronted by the reporter, Hobbs quickly fled the room.
Here’s what they found, all on video:
Stand Indivisible Arizona (endorsed Gov. Hobbs in their 2026 ballot guide) — The journalist posed as a Canadian citizen and asked to register to vote. The canvasser not only agreed to help the alleged non-citizen register, but when asked whether other Canadians could register too, she said, “Tell them to do it online.”
Worker Power (working to re-elect Gov. Hobbs) — The journalist told a canvasser they were not a U.S. citizen. Despite this, at the journalist’s request, the canvasser marked “yes” on the citizenship question of the voter registration form.
When We Count (the DNC’s own registration program) — The journalist posed as a felon on probation and asked to register to vote. The canvassers looked up the law and saw that a felon on probation is ineligible. Even so, they encouraged the journalist to register: “You should just do it.”
AFL-CIO (phone bank mobilizing voters for Gov. Hobbs) — The undercover journalist asked a phone bank trainer whether to ask the people being called if they're citizens. The trainer’s answer: “We don’t care.”