Maricopa County officials voted to shift several responsibilities away from the county recorder a month before a new recorder will take over the office.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer signed off on a new elections services agreement, a document that lays out each party’s election administration responsibilities.
The agreement, unanimously approved by the board on Oct. 10, gives the Board of Supervisors the authority to appoint the board that processes early ballots, which includes an inspector and two judges from different political parties. According to the Election Procedures Manual, those boards examine, count and verify early ballots before they are tabulated. That includes opening envelopes, ensuring the ballot envelopes show the correct election code and identifying damaged ballots.
“[U]nlike previous agreements between the Parties, the [Board of Supervisors] is responsible for carrying out all early ballot processing as prescribed by statute and the [Elections Procedures Manual],” according to the agreement.
Under the previous shared services agreement adopted in 2023, the recorder managed early ballot processing.
Under the new agreement, the Recorder’s Office will retain other election-related responsibilities, including voter registration, planning and administering early voting and signature verification of early ballots.
However, the Board of Supervisors also voted to move the recorder’s information technology staff and its associated $5 million budget under its supervision, including “any IT-related service necessary for the Recorder to effectively perform its elections or business-related responsibilities as designated.”
And that change will affect more than the recorder’s election responsibilities.
The recorder is also responsible for keeping track of an array of important documents filed by county residents, such as liens and deeds. According to the agreement, the board will oversee the IT staff that deals with the recorder’s document recording responsibilities, including the document information system and recording kiosks.
The supervisors did not comment on the reasoning behind the changes when they voted to adopt the new agreement, and Supervisors Jack Sellers, Clint Hickman, Bill Gates and Thomas Galvin did not respond to requests for comment.
“In Arizona, elections are administered by the County Board of Supervisors and the County Recorder. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Recorder’s Office have had agreements in place to manage these administrative functions since the 1950s,” according to a statement provided by a county spokesperson. “The update to the current agreement will adjust administrative responsibilities to create efficiencies, most notably in Information Technology-related services.”
Richer’s office provided a similar statement, saying “the current agreement is designed to improve efficiencies with Information Technology personnel and resources.”
The newly approved plan won’t affect the upcoming November election and will take effect on Dec. 10.
That is about a month before a new recorder will take office to replace Richer, who lost to Republican Justin Heap in the GOP primary in July. Heap is running against Democrat Tim Stringham in the general election.
Stringham declined to comment and Heap did not respond to a request for comment.