Unsure who to vote for in the Maricopa County recorder's race? Hear from the candidates

The upcoming state primary will winnow down the field in the pivotal race for Maricopa County recorder.

The seat holds power over voter registration and early voting, and the race has drawn national attention. Maricopa County is the most populous county in the state and one of the largest voting jurisdictions in the country. Recently, it has also become a breeding ground for voting conspiracies.

Three Republicans are running for a shot at the key position: Incumbent Stephen Richer, information technology professional Don Hiatt and state Rep. Justin Heap. Whoever wins will face military veteran and attorney Timothy Stringham, a Democrat, in the November election.

Richer, first elected in 2020, is looking for a second term in office. During his time in office, he touts his efforts to clean voter rolls and improve chain of custody documentation. Along the way, he's established himself as a staunch defender of the county's elections and has pushed back on voting conspiracies and misinformation.

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Heap and Hiatt both have voiced issues with county elections. Heap, who has previously supported legislation to remove Arizona from a multistate voter registration list maintenance effort, has pledged to clean voter rolls. He also has promised faster election results. Hiatt also commits to cleaning voter rolls and says he would publicly release election-related data, including detailed logs from machines that tally votes.

The Arizona Republic asked each candidate questions about their bid for office and how they would handle key issues if elected. Here's what they had to say. Answers may have been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Growth: How will you ensure election processes can withstand population increases?

If elected, you will be tasked with overseeing voter registration and early voting in a rapidly growing county. What steps will you take to ensure voter rolls are properly maintained? What changes or improvements would you make to early ballot processing and signature verification?

Stephen Richer: When I took office in January 2021, Maricopa County had 2.6 million active registered voters. We now have 2.4 million active registered voters. That's a decrease of 200,000 voters despite being the fastest-growing county in the United States. I don't have to talk about what I would do to improve our voter rolls. I've done it. And I've done it in a lawful manner. Many people talk about what they would do — for example, that they would use data provided by a real estate brokerage — in a way that shows their ignorance of the law. And my office always follows the law. As for how we did it, I prioritized voter list maintenance by allocating personnel to the department and recruiting an incredibly knowledgeable and talented director of voter registration.

We rebuilt the voter registration database, we used new list maintenance tools and we conducted the largest-ever public information campaign. We now use every single lawful list maintenance tool at our disposal, including Arizona Department of Vital Statistics reports, Social Security Administration data, U.S. Postal Service national change of address reports, Electronic Registration Information Center interstate mover reports, Arizona obituaries, juror reports and more.

Don Hiatt: My lifetime of working with data integrity gives me the skills necessary to apply accepted industry methodologies to maintain the voter list of data. I would work with the Board of Supervisors to push for ending "voting month." When a person comes to a precinct location to vote, they would present their valid government identification, thus reducing the need for the signature verification step that currently requires days and days to complete. The county will save money, increase security and have results published the next day. What is so hard to understand about simple precinct voting with friendly hand counts in the evening?

Justin Heap: Effective voter roll management is central to ensuring voters can have trust in the process of Maricopa County’s elections. Under the current recorder, voter roll maintenance has been laughable at best, resulting in historically low voter confidence and voter disenfranchisement. My promise to voters is to do everything within the confines of our election laws to clean our voter rolls in real time and to restore transparency, lawfulness and honesty back to our elections. In the Arizona Legislature, I am fighting for this, and I will make it happen as recorder.

Timothy Stringham: Arizona already has a robust process to protect our voter rolls while making our elections accessible for voters. What I promise to do is to listen intently to our poll workers and our career election officials, and work to bring them resources and advocate for policies to make their jobs easier. In Maricopa County, we have over 2.4 million voters and we record over a million documents a year. The job of the recorder is to make sure our employees have the tools to get a job of that size done. Leadership should always listen to their workers before deciding that they know better. That's what I've done as an officer in the United States military and it's how I'll lead as the county recorder.

Threats: How will you protect your workers from harassment?

County election officials have seen threats and harassment in recent years. What steps would you take to protect your staff, ensure your office can retain employees and ensure you can attract new workers when needed?

Richer: I'm proud of my ability to recruit and retain the best staff. People stay because they know I have their backs. I don't mince words in responding to crazy accusations. I stand up to threats. And I work alongside them. I am in the office 60 hours per week. I work even the most menial tasks, because I care about them and I care about the mission. We have also done more concrete things such as constructing a new exterior fence, increasing the number of security cameras, arranging for security personnel during election times, conducting safety training, fortifying certain windows, installing metal detectors, enhancing cyber security and more.

We also work very closely with our law enforcement partners, all of whom have been absolutely wonderful, especially the Sheriff's Office. I'd led operations and businesses before taking office. My primary opponents have not. It's a laughable thought that somebody who has never made a hiring decision, a firing decision or managed a significantly-sized team should come in and run this office of 150 full-time employees.

Hiatt: Once we return to precinct voting, the public will gain confidence in the election process, and harassment will end. Violent protestors should always be arrested.

Heap: I condemn any and all violence or threats against all election officials. That is simply not who we are as Americans. I categorically reject it. I also condemn the Democrats weaponization of our government and justice system to target and destroy their political opponents. Both of these are a perverse corruption of our American institutions. If anyone makes a credible threat against a public official, I believe they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Stringham: The county recorder needs to work closely with all of our law enforcement agencies in the Valley as well as federal agencies to analyze every aspect of our security, whether that means Election Day security, election integrity or office safety. I've worked in national security for more than 15 years, including time working for the Department of Justice, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. I also have a master's degree in national security law from Georgetown University, so safety for our employees and our voters isn't just a top priority for me, it's an area of expertise.

Electoral trust: How confident are you in election results?

How confident are you in the certified results of the 2020 and 2022 elections?

Richer: Very, very confident. See all the post-election assessments. See the court cases. If you're running for recorder and can't give a plain answer to this question, then you either haven't done your homework or you're a coward. Either is disqualifying.

Hiatt: The 2020 election was stolen through a myriad of steps. Poll workers used to be able to observe if someone "stuffed" extra ballots in the ballot box. Today, the ballot box is being stuffed with green, no excuse mail-in ballots. If we want to save our state and the nation, we must end our love affair with the green, no-excuse mail-in ballot and return to precinct voting with paper ballots, valid photo identification and a friendly hand count during the evening, giving results by midnight. Did you know France, Mexico, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and no Middle Eastern or Latin countries allow mail-in voting, primarily to avoid fraud? Maybe the U.S. should wake up and smell the coffee and ban no excuse mail-in ballots.

Heap: What’s abundantly clear to any honest observer is that voters are disenfranchised and have lost trust in our elections. Restoring voter confidence and the integrity of our elections has become the civil rights issue of our time. We need more transparency, lawfulness and honesty in the election process so every voter is confident in the outcomes of Maricopa County elections.

Stringham: I'm extremely confident in the results of those elections, however, I also don't want anyone to feel like their concerns are being dismissed nor do I think we need to be complacent about future elections. It is fantastic that people are interested in election security and integrity. We just want to make sure that we are having informed, honest discussions, instead of what we got with the Cyber Ninjas investigation, which was a grossly irresponsible waste of taxpayer money.

Property documents: How would you improve recording functions?

The recorder does more than just election-related duties. If elected, you will also be responsible for recording a variety of documents, including deeds, plats and other property records. How would you improve the current recording system and searchable database?

Richer: None of my opponents have any experience in election administration, voter registration administration or recording public documents. That's a problem. One has never even recorded a property document, because he lives in his parent's house. That's something we record thousands of times per day. My team and I are very nearly done with the completion of a redesign of the recording website. The new website will allow users to more easily find specific recorded documents, digitally record documents and browse our index of over 55 million recorded documents.

This is very important because over 90% of our customers now digitally record. In addition to the new website, in the last year, we built Maricopa Title Alert to prevent deed fraud. We already have over 65,000 individual subscribers. Also in the past year, we launched remote recording kiosks, and we've indexed over two million historic documents that were previously unavailable for searches by name. In 2025, I hope to use technology to automatically read recorded documents such that users can search recorded documents by additional fields. I will continue working to prevent deed fraud. I suspect that is why I have been endorsed by the major real estate associations.

Hiatt: I want to improve the security around property deeds and notify individuals when changes occur to their records. I will also analyze the processes currently in use and make appropriate improvements that will increase security.

Heap: I will make sure the system is accessible and transparent for everyone. We need to be constantly vigilant in protecting Maricopa County property owners against deed and title fraud by enhancing the notification systems for property owners whenever a change in status occurs.

Stringham: Deed fraud is increasingly becoming a problem and we need to work closely with our real estate professionals and title companies to create secure processes to record documents, as well as efficient processes to identify and investigate suspected fraud that do not slow down business in a fast-growing county. This issue might not affect a lot of people, but when it does, the results are catastrophic. We also need to continue to work to improve our county websites so that if you do need information, it is readily accessible.

On a personal note: Who do you admire?

What person in public life, past or present, do you most admire, and why?

Richer: My ideological north star growing up was Milton Friedman, and he's part of the reason why I chose to go to the University of Chicago for law school and graduate school. My favorite president is George Washington. Walking away from power was so unique in the course of human history. We easily could have become just another monarchy.

I moved to Arizona during Doug Ducey's governorship, and I immediately took pride in his leadership — hardworking, professional, moral, principled and prudent. I admire anyone in public life who says hard truths. Most recently, this made me admire former Scottsdale City Councilwoman Linda Milhaven, who stood up in front of a sizable audience and defended the dignity of a public employee, even though she knew it would not be well-received by the audience.

Similarly, former Gov. Jan Brewer recently wrote in The Arizona Republic about a hard truth. My appreciation and respect for her continues to grow. If more public actors had the courage these two recently exhibited, we'd be in a better position as a society. And I continue to admire my friend, supporter and mentor Helen Purcell, who held this office for 28 years.

Hiatt: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first president I remember in my young life because I know the exact spot I was standing when I heard he had been assassinated. He left a lasting impression on my life. As he said: "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." He also inspired me with the goal of placing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

Justin Heap: President Abraham Lincoln. Not only is he the father of the Republican Party, but he successfully fought the signature civil rights battle in our nation’s history. His steadfastness, faith and wisdom held America together during its darkest time. Election integrity has become the civil rights issue of my lifetime. I am running for Maricopa County recorder to make sure that every voter, regardless of political party, can have trust that our elections are run honestly, securely and accessibly.

Timothy Stringham: My fellow U.S. Navy veteran, John McCain, who reminded us that there was no greater life than one spent in service.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County recorder election 2024: The candidates