Justin Heap says he wants to speed up elections, clean voter rolls and stop noncitizen voting

PHOENIX — Justin Heap, the man poised to take over the role of Maricopa County Recorder, has big plans for how he wants elections to run in the Valley.

Heap, an Arizona state representative from Mesa, has been an outspoken critic of Maricopa County elections, calling them a “laughing stock” on X.

The Republican’s top priorities are improving tabulation, voter rolls and the speed at which election results roll out.

“I’m just pleased and humbled and ready to get in and start making fixes,” Heap told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday.

His opponent in the Maricopa County recorder election, Democrat Tim Stringham, conceded and called Heap to congratulate him on his apparent victory on Wednesday.

What will Republican Maricopa County recorder election candidate do in office?

Heap said he wants to work with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to better tabulate early mail-in ballots that voters drop off on Election Day.

“There are people who hold onto their mail-in ballot, the green envelope, until the day of and then drop them off,” Heap said.

He wants to put measures in place to speed up the process by which these ballots are counted.

Better cleaning and maintaining voter rolls is another top priority.

In the U.S., lists of voters are maintained at the state and local levels. This means election officials in Arizona must take extra steps to keep up with the state’s population. This can be a tricky and time-consuming process as many residents will move out of state or pass away.

This reality leads to widespread perceptions that voter rolls in various states — including Arizona — need to be tightened up.

Heap shares this perception.

“It seems, especially with our active early voting roll, that we are sending out way too many ballots to people who have moved, who have died, who are voting in multiple states,” Heap said. “I think the voters’ experience with it is they want to see tighter rules.”

However, states are already working to clear up the surplus. In fact, the Election Assistance Commission found that states removed over 19 million voter records from their rolls between the close of voter registration for the 2020 presidential election and the close of registration for the 2022 general election.

Arizona removed 432,498 voters, which totaled 8.9% of voters, from its rolls during this time. Reasons for removal were voters moving out of jurisdiction, dying, requesting removal or failing to return a confirmation notice.

Justin Heap addresses concerns over noncitizen voting

Another commonly held misconception is the belief that undocumented migrants are voting in American elections.

“With the open border crisis that we have, voters are very concerned about making sure that we have checks in place to make sure that only lawful citizens are on the role on our roles,” Heap said.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has said instances of noncitizens voting are “vanishingly rare.”

Additionally, Heap said election officials have various tools to ensure noncitizens can’t vote.

“We do have some tools to do that and I intend to strengthen those and put those in place so that we make sure that only lawful citizens are voting where they live,” Heap said.

What does Justin Heap think of the 2024 Maricopa County recorder election?

Heap has previously voted in favor of bills that would end early voting and electronic ballot tabulation in Arizona.

When asked if he thinks the 2024 general election was free and fair, Heap said it’s too soon to know since ballots are still being counted.

However, he thinks this year’s Election Day was smoother than in 2022.

“There were some problems at certain locations during the day, but we certainly didn’t see the kind of systemic breakdowns and problems,” Heap said. “I think that’s really important for the people to see.”

Election Day problems included technical issues in Apache County as well as bomb threats targeting four polling locations in Navajo County.

Another one of the items on Heap’s to-do list is speeding up Maricopa County’s election processes.

This year, it will take 10 to 13 days for the final count of ballots in Arizona to be complete, according to Maricopa County deputy elections director Jennifer Liewer.

“In the future, we need to make sure that we are cutting down and getting results faster to the people,” Heap said. “It inspires more confidence to do that.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Heidi Hommel contributed to this report.