Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap accused Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes of withholding a list of felons who don’t belong on the voter rolls.
According to Fontes' office, the recorder’s problem is with the Justice Department.
“We recognize that the counties are frustrated. We are equally frustrated with the fact that the federal government has slow-rolled us this data," Fontes spokesperson Calli Jones said. “That is causing a larger backup.”
It’s the latest election administration squabble in Maricopa County, one of the biggest swing counties in the nation and a major focus point for President Donald Trump’s false claims of 2020 election fraud.
The accusations started flying Sept. 22 when the Republican Heap released a statement accusing
Fontes, a Democrat, of failing to provide "timely, complete and usable federal felony-conviction data" ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
County recorders are in charge of voter registration under Arizona law.
“This is not a minor administrative delay. It is a failure that directly affects our ability to keep the voter rolls accurate,” Heap said. “Arizona law requires my office to cancel the registration when we receive qualifying felony-conviction information. But we cannot remove an ineligible elector we have not been told about.”
The issue stems from a 1,600-page DOJ report that covers data from 2022 and 2023, Fontes' office said. The report is in a static PDF format, so Fontes has dedicated staff to the time-consuming process of sorting the data by hand and sending it to counties.
"This is not new to the counties, and our office is actively working on it," Jones said, noting that Heap was given the report a month ago.
Time is ticking for elections officials, Heap pointed out in his statement. Early voting begins Oct. 7 in Arizona.
“With the General Election approaching, this needs to be fixed now. County recorders are prepared to do our job. The Secretary of State needs to do his,” Heap said.
Jones said the Secretary of State’s Office intends to have the data to county recorders by the end of the week.
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Adrian Fontes and Justin Heap fighting again over AZ voter list of felons
