Arizona is bracing for November chaos after a year of bitter infighting between election officials has left the state's largest voting jurisdiction fractured and vulnerable to claims of fraud. Just one week before the state's primary, a truce was brokered between feuding Republicans, but experts worry the conflict foreshadows worse disruption to come.
The trouble centers on Justin Heap, a Trump-backed county recorder elected on promises to challenge election integrity. Heap has spent the past year in a scorching legal battle with the Maricopa county board of supervisors over who controls voting logistics, ballot drop boxes, and early voting procedures. The dispute turned ugly, complete with subpoenas, accusations of equipment theft, and armed deputies showing up at employees' homes.
In April, a state court sided with Heap and handed him back key election duties. The state supreme court then unanimously backed the ruling. On July 14, both sides announced a settlement that clarifies responsibilities going forward. Yet the damage is already done. Democrats and election officials view Heap as an unreliable steward, while his allies see vindication.
"The biggest threat is the president, who is lying," said Adrian Fontes, Arizona's secretary of state, referring to Trump's continued claims of widespread election fraud in the state. Trump lost Arizona by roughly 11,000 votes in 2020, then spent years pressuring officials to reverse the result.
That history haunts the state. In 2020, Maricopa county became ground zero for election denialism. Trump loyalists circulated wild rumors: ballots shredded and burned at a chicken farm, election equipment hidden away. A controversial audit by a firm called Cyber Ninjas, using amateur volunteers and spinning ballots on rotating stands, inexplicably concluded Biden had won by an even larger margin than official counts showed.
The aftermath was brutal. Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake claimed rigged elections cost her the race in 2022, then ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2024 while maintaining the fraud narrative. She now serves as Trump's ambassador to Jamaica.
Heap's rise signals a hardening of the denialism line. The Arizona Freedom Caucus, a hard-right faction, backed his bid to unseat the previous recorder, Stephen Richer, a Republican who refused to embrace Trump's stolen-election claims. Heap campaigned by calling county elections a "laughingstock" and dodging direct questions about whether 2020 and 2022 were legitimate.
Once in office, Heap moved fast. He hired a lawyer from America First Legal Foundation, a law firm co-founded by Trump's policy director Stephen Miller. He echoed Trump's language, claiming recent elections contained "inconsistencies and illegalities." The board, which includes Trump ally Debbie Lesko, pushed back hard, and the two sides locked into a vicious power struggle.
The settlement this month clarifies the split of responsibilities but leaves fundamental tensions unresolved. Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a Democrat, was blunt: "He owns November." If problems emerge in the general election, blame belongs to Heap.
Trump's shadow hangs over everything. Since returning to office, he appointed election skeptics to federal posts, seized voting records tied to his 2020 defeat, and fired officials who investigated his overturning efforts. The Justice Department announced it will prosecute election officials who knowingly allow non-citizens to vote, a threat Arizona Secretary of State Fontes called insulting and a "nasty gram." The department also plans to send election monitors to Arizona and five other states this fall, including Maricopa county.
Board chair Kate Brophy McGee hopes for "boring elections" ahead. But the odds look long. Patti O'Neil, chair of the Maricopa county Democratic party, said the settlement did nothing to ease her worries. Heap "has not proven himself to be a good-faith actor," she said.
The stakes are enormous. Arizona will decide races for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and Congress. Experts say the manufactured chaos in Maricopa county, the battleground's battleground, could provide cover for denialism claims even if voting runs smoothly. The infrastructure for another 2020 meltdown is already in place.
Author James Rodriguez: "Arizona's election officials are about to find out whether a settlement scribbled on paper means anything when Trump is whispering in the ear of the man who just got control of the ballot box."
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