Big Win! Maricopa Superior Court Judge Orders Board of Supervisors to Restore Key Election Functions to Recorder’s Office

Gateway Pundit ^ | 4/17/26 | Brian Lupo

[CFW]

In October of 2024, former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer entered into an agreement with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (Board) to shift certain election duties away from the Recorder’s office and to the Board. This was done months after Justin Heap defeated Richer in the July 30th, 2024, Republican Primary for Maricopa County Recorder, and one month before Heap won the November 5th election to succeed Richer.

The agreement was unanimous and gave the Board control over early ballot processing, including the appointment of a bipartisan board responsible for overseeing the early voting process. The agreement also centralized election-related information technology (IT) functions, as well as the $5 million budget associated with the IT service.

[snip]

Heap did take legal action, and yesterday a Maricopa County Superior Court judge sided with the Recorder’s position.

According to the Court’s decision, the authority was delegated to a county’s recorder or an “other officer in charge of elections.” But the order also stated that, “The recorder may subsequently withdraw his or her consent and reclaim his or her statutory authority or responsibility.”

The judge ordered that the Board of Supervisors “return to the Recorder’s direct custody and/or control the IT staff, servers, databases, software, websites, and equipment that were in the Recorder’s custody…prior to October of 2024…” and enjoined the Board of Supervisors “from further exercising any election functions delegated by the Legislature to the Recorder.”

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: arizona; brianlupo; cheating; corruption; elections; fraud; gatewaypundit; justinheap; maricopacounty; rigging; stephenricher; tampering

[CFW]

So when the Maricopa Bd of Supervisors saw that Heap was going to win the Recorder election, they made an agreement with their guy (Richer) to take over part of the operations of the Recorder's office. Newly elected Justin Heap fought back and a judge agreed with him. Excellent news but I assume the Board will appeal.

[Steely Tom]

Excellent news but I assume the Board will appeal.

Of course they'll appeal. And until the appeal is heard, which will probably take five or six years, they'll ignore this ruling.

[CivilWarBrewing]

Richer is a soulless demonic deep state puppet snake.

[Buck-Toothed Knuckle Dragger]

Problem is: many of those registered as Republicans are actually leftist wackos who have infiltrated the process to provide the illusion of bipartisanship.
They are way ahead of conservatives on that score. Remember that they have no problems lying and/or cheating. It comes natural to them.

[Political Junkie Too]

Here is the case that needs to be brought to the Supreme Court to put an end to the massive corruption by county election officials (previously posted here).

Split off the federal ballots from the state ballots.

Make the states follow federal statutes regarding the time of federal elections.

Article I Section 4:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding lections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Place of Chusing Senators.

Article II Section 1 Clause 4:

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

2 USC § 7: Time of election

The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter.

3 USC § 1: Time of appointing electors

The electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed, in each State, on election day, in accordance with the laws of the State enacted prior to election day.

The Constitution gave Congress the power to set the dates for the election. Congress set that date for federal elections in 2 USC § 7 and 3 USC § 1. The Article V Supremacy clause makes these statutes override state election laws regarding federal races.

The states are not following the federal law for conducting federal elections "on election day" singular.

For convenience, the states have bundled both the state and federal elections onto a single ballot, and then held those elections on floating durations that are inconsistent across the several states.

By law, the federal elections are to be held on ONE DAY - the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

SCOTUS should be asked to rule on this so that the states are forced to separate the federal ballots from the local ballots and only count the federal ballots that are cast ON ELECTION DAY as prescribed by law by Congress via the power given in the Constitution.

County election officials should have no leniency to disregard the federal statutes for federal ballots. For state elections for state and local offices, the state can count those ballots for as long as they want.

-PJ