PHOENIX – Today, All Voting is Local has named Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap as the most dangerous election denier in Arizona as part of its list of the country’s top 10 most dangerous election deniers. The list is a record of the nation’s top 10 federal, state, and local election deniers who currently hold positions of power and could use this power to keep eligible voters from voting and to block their votes from being counted—all within the larger context of President Donald Trump’s increasingly bold, brazen, and deceitful attempts to claim greater power and control election outcomes before voters even head to the polls. In response, All Voting is Local Arizona State Director Alex Gulotta issued the following statement:
“Though he was just elected to office in 2024, Recorder Heap’s short tenure has been marked by controversy, inefficiency, and a lack of transparency to voters. In addition to the ongoing dispute in which Heap is trying to wrest checks and balances from the Board of County Supervisors, his most recent attempt to undermine the Maricopa Board of Supervisors’ list of proposed early voting sites only revealed that he didn’t read the entirety of the board’s proposal, demonstrating just how unfit Heap is for this role.
“As the 2026 midterms approach, Recorder Heap’s lack of leadership, coupled with his previous insistence on doubling down on misinformation about how previous elections in the state were held, is felt by both the election administrators tasked with conducting fair, accessible elections in Maricopa and the voters themselves. All Voting Is Local is making clear that if he is to continue serving as the county’s head of voter registration and early voting, he must focus on upholding his duty and increasing voting access rather than using his office to play politics and undermine his constituents’ power at the ballot box to claim more for himself.”
Background on Justin Heap:
In a campaign led by indicted 2020 fake elector Jake Hoffman, Heap became county recorder while continuing to insist that “inconsistencies and illegalities” have happened in previous Arizona elections and that he does “not believe laws were followed.” Most recently, he met with and supported then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as she continued to push election-denier conspiracy theories about the county’s elections to garner support for the SAVE America Act.
Since June 2025, Heap has been engaged in a legal battle with the Maricopa Board of Supervisors to gain more control over the county’s elections. The dispute remains unresolved, despite midterm primary elections approaching in July. It has also been reported that Heap sent text messages directly to county supervisors via a personal phone in an effort to gain more control over the county’s elections prior to the lawsuit.
In February 2026, All Voting Is Local called for Heap’s resignation after he failed to condemn incendiary online remarks by a senior staffer during a board of county supervisors meeting. Separately, the Board of County Supervisors has ordered Heap to present a written report and testify under oath about contradictory statements he has made about voter disenfranchisement in the county as of February 2026.
In the same month, Heap attempted to undermine the Maricopa Board of Supervisors’ role in recommending early vote sites, only to reveal that the premise of his letter was incorrect because he failed to evaluate all the document’s tabs, ignored the board’s full recommendation, and spread misinformation in the process.