Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap contacted federal authorities to report suspicious activity at an elections center, but county supervisors say he should have ignored reporting law.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors alleged Heap was in the wrong for notifying the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about two individuals who entered an election building alone late at night with flash drives in hand.
Federal policy directs elected officials to report suspected cyber and physical incidents to federal authorities. This includes suspicious network traffic or activity and unauthorized access to data.
The two election workers recorded on the livestream were working between the late hours of 9 to 11 p.m., and were uploading flash drives into election equipment.
Livestream footage of the workers went viral on X last week with voters citing concerns that the workers may have been tampering with election equipment. Board of Supervisors leadership waited until the following Wednesday before providing a statement explaining to the voters the meaning behind the workers’ actions in the viral video.
According to the board, the workers were performing authorized work to update ballot duplication system software and upload election data to a computer terminal used for ballot duplication that was disconnected from the internet and ballot tabulation equipment.
The FBI investigated the recorder’s complaint and found no evidence of wrongdoing or fraud.
Despite the federal policy and the FBI’s finding, the supervisors were vocally upset with Heap for contacting federal authorities before they issued a response days later.
In multiple media interviews, Chair Kate Brophy McGee denounced Heap, in some statements calling him “disgusting” and accusing him of being complicit in the threats and intimidation against election workers. McGee said Heap should have ignored federal policy and called the supervisors instead.
“[H]e went directly to the FBI, and in the process of doing that, he put our employees at great risk,” said McGee.
Then, on Friday, the county experienced an issue with unauthorized early voting site access at one location that occurred after hours.
Rather than waiting nearly a week to address the issue, Heap issued a press release that same day advising the voters of the unauthorized access.
Vice Chair Debbie Lesko and Supervisor Thomas Galvin questioned Heap for not calling the FBI about the unauthorized access at the voting location.
https://x.com/debbielesko/status/2111257046645371360
Galvin accused Heap of “mishandl[ing] ballots” and “sloppiness.”
https://x.com/ThomasGalvin/status/2111258991557025913
Rep. John Gillette (LD-30), chair of the Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, disagreed with the supervisors.
Gillette cited federal policy requiring elections officials to contact federal authorities about actual or suspected election fraud. He said the supervisors were unfairly criticizing Heap for following federal policy.
“You question the Recorder for following the law,” said Gillette. “Just a reminder, elections infrastructure is deemed ‘critical national security infrastructure.’”
https://x.com/azrepgillette/status/2111248642841755825
Heap’s chief of staff, Sam Stone, defended their office’s decision to contact the FBI as in alignment with established policy in addition to being necessary to preserve public perception of election integrity.
“[W]hen questions about potentially fraudulent activity in an election come to light the proper reaction is not for the organization at hand to clear themselves, but to bring in an appropriate outside investigative agency to do it,” said Stone.
Be the first to comment