Maricopa County supervisor slams recorder for seeking FBI investigation: ‘Shame on Justin Heap’

Maricopa County Supervisor Kate Brophy McGee said a viral video that raised questions about employees working late at the county’s Tabulation and Election Center showed routine election work.

“There is no such thing as a normal workday in elections, and I’ve seen that firsthand,” Brophy McGee told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Thursday. “The best way I can describe it: ‘The county never sleeps.’ They are on this 24/7, working very hard to put on a smooth election, just like we did in the primary.”

She said the employees in the video were setting up software used in the ballot duplication process. When damaged ballots can’t be read by counting machines, teams with members from both parties copy the voters’ choices onto new ballots that the machines can process.

‘Shame on Justin Heap,’ Kate Brophy McGee says

Brophy McGee added that the controversy could have been resolved if Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap — who has had a longstanding feud with the Board of Supervisors — had simply called the board.

“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. Instead, he went directly to the FBI, and in the process of doing that, he put our employees at great risk,” Brophy McGee said.

However, the investigator the FBI asked to look into the allegation concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

“I heard somewhere that this video has had 1 million views. You don’t do that to Maricopa County employees, and shame on Justin Heap for doing that,” Brophy McGee said.

She’s not alone in critiquing Heap’s office for its actions. Her fellow board member, Thomas Galvin, described the recorder’s staff as “amoral amoebas” on social media.

Why did the Maricopa County Elections video spark controversy?

The video showed two county employees working late and appearing to use a USB drive. Some election-integrity activists and online commentators questioned what they were doing and called for an investigation.

Maricopa County Elections said the employees were performing authorized technical work. The department is run by the county Board of Supervisors, which Brophy McGee chairs.

In a statement on Twitter, the department said images of the employees had been shared by someone questioning whether they were authorized to be there.

“As occurs in the weekend preceding an election, these employees were working on a legitimate election task, late into the night. These photos may be used on social media to imply wrongdoing. This is not the case,” the department said.

Kate Brophy McGee urges questions before accusations

Brophy McGee said she wished Heap had contacted the Board of Supervisors to ask about the activity. She also urged him and others not to target election employees over routine work.

“This is part of the kindest thing I can say, a confirmation bias on the part of the recorder and some of his base who believe what they are seeing is nefarious. It was anything but and we need to leave our employees alone,” Brophy McGee said. “These are highly technical jobs. Don’t involve our employees and I’ve told Mr. Heap that from day one.”

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