A big midterms year in Arizona kicks off with the state’s largest county embroiled in election drama

Maricopa County Recorder candidate Arizona state Rep. Justin Heap, R-Phoenix, speaks during a campaign event, Oct. 22, 2024, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) 2026-04-18T12:49:32Z Phoenix (AP) — Arizona is expected to have at least two competitive U.S. House races in November while Democrats will be defending their seats for governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Yet so far, it’s been the office running elections in the state’s most populous county that has commanded much of the spotlight. Republican Justin Heap is an election skeptic who will be overseeing his first statewide election in Maricopa County. He has been engaged in a bitter legal feud with the county board of supervisors over election procedures, has put in place a controversial system for checking signatures on mail ballots and has run voter records through a federal system to check for noncitizens despite questions about its accuracy. Heap also has made overtures to the Trump administration in its quest for voter and election records. His actions have drawn heated comments from members of that board, which splits election oversight with Heap’s office, and rebukes from the attorney general and secretary of state. A ruling this week in the legal case will give Heap more authority over election operations. The turmoil has created an air of uncertainty about how the midterm elections will go in a county that has been a regular target of election conspiracy theorists and is pivotal for deciding statewide races in one of the nation’s most important political battlegrounds. (