Special prosecutor investigating Maricopa County election equipment incident

PHOENIX - A widening conflict between Maricopa County election officials is escalating into new allegations over ballot equipment, while voters express growing concern ahead of Arizona’s upcoming primary election.

The backstory:

The dispute stems from a broader legal fight that began last summer, when Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap sued the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, alleging the board improperly stripped the recorder’s office of its traditional election duties. A judge ruled in his favor back in April.

What's Happening Now:

The dispute intensified after Heap filed an emergency motion in court claiming the board referred recorder’s office employees for criminal investigation after they attempted to retrieve ballot scanners he says belong to his office.

What they're saying:

Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Debbie Lesko strongly disputed that account and said the security video tells a different story.

In a detailed written statement following the motion, county officials provided a timeline of the March 12 incident, saying two recorders office employees were observed on security cameras removing a board-controlled pre-tabulation scanner from the Maricopa County Election and Tabulation Center while results were being processed for a local election.

The statement said the equipment was loaded into a vehicle believed to be a personal pickup truck and taken off-site for about 50 minutes before being returned to county facilities.

"The county attorney's office said, ‘You can't use that machine anymore because we don't know what they did with it,’" Lesko said. "And so then we had to buy a new machine. It cost the taxpayers $70,000."

Dig deeper:

According to the statement from Lesko and Chair Kate Brophy McGee, an internal human resources inquiry was conducted to see if any policies had been violated. Lesko said Heap’s office did not participate.

Lesko said investigators determined the same employee was seen removing what appeared to be provisional ballot affidavit envelopes from a secure area the same day. She added a later count confirmed all ballots and envelopes were accounted for.

"Who does this type of stuff?" Lesko said. "Just takes a machine, carts it off, puts it into a private vehicle. I mean, talk about election integrity and chain of custody."

What's next:

Following the internal review, Lesko said county leadership referred the findings to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which appointed a special prosecutor to determine if there was criminal activity. Lesko said the investigation remains ongoing.

In a statement posted to X, Supervisor Thomas Galvin said, "I just reviewed video from the tabulation center incident at the March Tempe election. I’ll reserve comment until after the video is released. But as the strongest proponent of election integrity, this is what matters to me; sanctity of machines, transparency, chain of custody."

What They're Telling Us:

In a statement to FOX 10, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said:

Local residents weigh in: ‘No confidence’ 

With early voting set to begin in two weeks, residents say the ongoing dispute is deepening divisions and raising concerns about election confidence.

"Do I have any confidence that we're going to get to have a free and fair election? No," Maricopa County resident Lauri Varon said. "Our Maricopa County Board of Supervisors are violating court orders and doing everything they can to obstruct Justin Heap, who was duly elected to do a job."

Another resident said the conflict among officials is already trickling down to voters.

"[Justin Heap] has been causing a ton of chaos and a lot of confusion and a lot of bitter and public litigation that has been making it so that a lot of people are going to be confused and discouraged from voting," Vivian Serafin said.