Maricopa County officials raise specter of ousting Recorder Justin Heap if he won’t testify

PHOENIX – The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors suggested it has the power to remove Recorder Justin Heap from office if he refuses to testify about voter disenfranchisement allegations made by his staff and other election-related matters.

The Phoenix area’s Republican-controlled governing body unanimously passed a motion Wednesday to require Heap to appear before it in person and under oath next week.

The agenda item for the motion cites Arizona Revised Statute § 11-253(a), which reads as follows:

The board may require any county officer to make reports under oath on any matter connected with the duties of his office, and may require the officer to give such bonds or further bonds as may be necessary for the faithful performance of his respective duties. An officer who neglects or refuses to make the report, or to give the bond within ten days after being so required, may be removed from office by the board and the office declared vacant. The board may then fill the vacancy.

“Justin Heap has been lying to the public and refusing to answer basic, job-related questions from the Board of Supervisors for more than one year,” BOS Chair Kate Brophy McGee said in a statement after the vote. “He has been unreliable. He has been unprofessional. He has been untruthful. He has been unaccountable.”

Why does board want Maricopa County recorder to testify?

Wednesday’s vote directs Heap, a Republican, to provide a report concerning his duties by Feb. 18 and testify regarding the matters the same day.

Brophy McGee sent a letter on Jan. 22 requesting the report, saying the information is needed as the board makes budgeting and policy decisions related to the Maricopa County election process. She sent another letter laying out the board’s demands after Wednesday’s vote.

If Heap fails to meet the supervisors’ demands or legally block their order and they eventually remove him from office, it would leave the state’s largest county without an elected recorder just months before Arizona’s 2026 primaries, which were moved up to July 21 under a new state law. The midterm general election will follow on Nov. 3.

“He has a responsibility to the people that elected him to be able to address these types of basic questions. It’s part of government,” Supervisor Steve Gallardo, the only Democrat on the five-member BOS, said while casting his yes vote for Wednesday’s motion about Heap.

Heap and the BOS have been locking horns since he took office in early 2025. Members of his staff made allegations of voter disenfranchisement during proceedings in a lawsuit over who has control over what parts of the county’s election process. The Recorder’s Office is responsible for the mail voting process and maintaining voter registration rolls.

Previously, Brophy McGee subpoenaed Recorder Chief of Staff Sam Stone, Senior Voter Registration Director Janine Petty and Chief Information Officer Bryan Colby to testify about their allegations.

Heap accused Brophy McGee of trying to intimidate his staff and filed a motion to block the subpoenas, leading a judge to grant a temporary restraining order on Feb. 5. A final ruling on whether Heap’s staffers have to testify is pending.

Kory Langhofer, an attorney representing the BOS, said during Wednesday’s meeting that the ongoing legal case doesn’t preclude the board from talking to Heap about his duties.

Langhofer said Heap’s lawyer filed a motion to block the board from discussing the agenda item, but the judge declined to sign it after a meeting Wednesday morning.

“The judge’s perspective on that question was, ‘Heap’s a big boy. He’s an elected official. You’re elected officials. You’re equals. You can work this out between yourselves.’ The judge has not signed an order that says you can’t require Heap to answer questions about budget items, for example,” Langhofer told the board.

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