Maricopa County recorder says telling FBI about video was ‘exactly what we should have done’

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap said his office “did exactly what we should have done” when it contacted the FBI about a viral video that turned out to be two election workers doing their jobs after normal hours.

An election watchdog group called We the People USA Alliance posted the video from the Maricopa County Election and Tabulation Center last Friday, implying the workers were doing something improper by starting the post with a siren emoji and BUSTED in capital letters. The video has more than 1 million views on X.

It’s not clear how the video was obtained, but the Maricopa County Elections Department does provide livestreams of its downtown Phoenix operations.

“We did what I think we were required to do, which is we reported it to both the county attorney and the FBI,” Heap told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Friday.

Justin Heap said he gave board 24 hours’ notice before video was made public

Heap said he knew about the video before it was posted to social media but did not directly notify the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, but he said the county attorney’s office did.

“We let them know 24 hours before that this was going to be public so that they could prepare and answer the questions the public had,” he said.

The Republican recorder and Republican-led board have been publicly feuding since he took office in early 2025.

On Thursday, board Chair Kate Brophy McGee told The Mike Broomhead Show that Heap’s actions related to the video put election employees at risk.

“My expectation would be that Recorder Heap and his office would call us, would ask us, ‘What is this? What are you guys doing?’ We would have been happy to answer the question,” Brophy McGee said. “Instead, he went directly to the FBI, and in the process of doing that, he put our employees at great risk.”

About an hour after the We the People USA Alliance post, which included the name of one of the employees in the video, the Maricopa County Elections Department posted a statement saying they were “working on a legitimate election task, late into the night.”

pic.twitter.com/jRFrARTzN5

— Maricopa County Elections (@MaricopaVote) October 9, 2026

On Wednesday, Brophy McGee and fellow Republican Supervisor Debbie Lesko issued a joint statement with more details rebutting what they called “misinformation.”

“Administration of our elections is a massive and multifaceted endeavor. Working outside the hours of a traditional workday in the weeks preceding and following an election is not unusual,” the statement said.

Justin Heap says he did not allege wrongdoing

Heap contends that the board should have done more.

“We did exactly what we should have done, and them trying to make now political hay of this … it’s quite ridiculous and it’s embarrassing for the board,” he said.

Heap said the county attorney told him the employees were authorized to be working after hours.

“I’m not alleging any wrongdoing. I’m alleging that when you have a video that raises questions, we need to investigate those questions and we need to answer the public’s questions in a timely manner,” he said.

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