(The Center Square) - Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is worried that felons will be allowed to vote in Arizona’s elections.
The recorder said he has this concern because Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has not provided his office and other county recorders with the latest federal conviction data, which is used to remove felons from voter rolls. Heap was referring to felons whose voting rights have not been restored under Arizona law.
“I think there’s a strong likelihood that some felons are going to be voting this election cycle because the secretary of state has not carried out his lawful responsibility,” Heap told The Center Square.
According to Heap, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office has not consistently received this data since 2022.
The recorder went public last week about Fontes not providing county recorders with up-to-date federal felony conviction data.
After Heap went public, Fontes told The Arizona Republic that Heap was “trying to exploit this particular issue for political purposes. Fontes also told ABC 15 reporter Garrett Archer that the “ bottleneck is currently with the DOJ.”
The Center Square reached out multiple times to Fontes’ office, but it did not respond before publication time.
Heap said he contacted the U.S. Department of Justice to ask whether what Fontes said was accurate, that he was waiting on election files from the DOJ. He said the DOJ told him that this was “not accurate” and that it had given the files to Fontes.
Heap noted that the DOJ said it had sent Fontes the election files through the second quarter of 2026.
Esther J. Winne, the acting public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona, said the office “has regularly provided federal felony conviction reports to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.”
Winne told The Center Square in an email that the U.S. attorney’s office “will continue to do so in accordance with our statutory obligations.”
Heap said the DOJ can’t legally give the Recorder’s Office the election files. He explained the department must give them to the Secretary of State’s Office, which then gives them to the county Recorder's Office.
Heap said it does not take long to remove a felon from voter rolls. However, he told The Center Square that the concern is the format in which his office receives the files.
When Fontes has given over files to the recorder’s office, Heap said they have not been in a “usable format,” noting the files come in PDF form rather than CSV, a plain-text format.
Heap said the number of felons removed from voting rolls depends on the quarter, estimating the number can range from 400 to over 1,000 people.
Heap told The Center Square that he is “hopeful” that Fontes will hand over all the election files this week, but he said he had “no confidence” in this happening.
He noted he would like to receive the most recent files rather than those from 2022 and 2023 because some felons may have finished their sentences and had their voting rights restored.
The files are large, the recorder said, adding they contain thousands of voters because of the county’s size. Maricopa County is Arizona's most populous county and is home to Phoenix.
Heap said his office has time to “take action,” but “it’s going to be a problem after the ballots go out.” Early voting for the general election begins in Arizona on Oct. 7. The general election will take place Nov. 3.
Arizona law allows felons who have completed their sentence and paid restitution to have their voting rights restored. These individuals will need to re-register to vote.
However, state law also says that people with multiple felony convictions need a Superior Court order restoring their voting rights and must re-register to vote.
People on parole in Arizona for a felony cannot vote, according to state law. They can become eligible after they finish parole and get an absolute discharge from their sentence.
Felons at the polls may not be aware they're ineligible to vote, but they risk more legal trouble if they return their ballot, Heap said.
Pinal County Recorder Dana Lewis said Arizona county recorders “have experienced delays in receiving the voter registration reports provided for under [state law] from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.
“My office has reached out several times to request current information. However, the reports we did receive were in a format our systems were unable to use,” she said.
Lewis added the delays “made it more challenging to keep voter records current.”
On Monday afternoon, Lewis told The Center Square via email that Fontes’ office provided information from 2023’s second quarter through first quarter 2025.
In addition, Lewis said her office received data for the first two quarters of 2026, but that leaves a gap of missing data. She said her office will hopefully receive the data from 2025’s third and fourth quarters later this week.
“Pinal County Recorder's Office will work diligently in the very short timeline to utilize this information to assure only eligible voters receive a ballot,” Lewis explained.
