Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.The Arizona Court of Appeals has temporarily blocked a ruling that was favorable to Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap in his long-running legal battle with the board of supervisors over control of the swing county’s elections.Two of its three justices ruled to stay enforcement of a lower court’s order in the case to avoid disrupting the upcoming state primary. The other — Justice Brian Furuya, who was appointed to the bench in 2021 — dissented and said he would not have ordered the stay.The ruling puts the fiery feud within county government on ice just days before voting begins in a high-stakes primary election.The dispute has been ongoing since Heap took office and contended that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors usurped much of his power in a deal they struck with his predecessor. Heap, a Republican, sued over the matter last year. After months of back-and-forth in court, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney ruled largely in Heap’s favor on April 16, issuing an injunction that ordered the majority-GOP board to return control of several election-related functions and information technology staffers to Heap’s office.The board appealed that ruling, arguing it was too close to the primary to implement the court’s directives without risking a tumultuous election.In the meantime, the officials have continued to butt heads. Last month, Heap asked Blaney to hold the supervisors in civil contempt of court, accusing them of flouting his earlier ruling.He also sought to stop a special prosecutor’s investigation into whether his employees broke the law by removing a scanner from the county’s vote tabulation center amid a local election earlier this year.Ultimately, the appellate court sided with the board, issuing a majority opinion that leaned heavily on the so-called Purcell principle. That legal guideline, named after former Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, calls for avoiding rule changes in the immediate leadup to an election.Justices Andrew Jacobs and James Morse wrote that Blaney’s ruling mandated changes that could result in “concrete, operational impacts on the public’s voting experience.”“The practical impacts of these changes, and even the injunction’s claim to mitigate practical harms for the voter, all demonstrate that this is no mere backroom dispute over accounting principles or organizational charts,” their ruling read. “It is, by everyone’s assessment, a live conflict hurtling toward real-world consequences in elections about to begin.”What does the appellate court’s decision mean for the Arizona primary?Board of Supervisors Chair Kate Brophy McGee, a Republican, said in a statement that the court’s decision was “a win” for voters.“Simply put, this court order averts potential chaos at the polls that may have resulted from the lower court decision, which sought to force the county to enact broad changes in election administration in the middle of one election and on the eve of another,” she said.A spokesperson for Heap did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. But the decision appears to halt his efforts to hold the board in civil contempt and avert investigation into the scanner removal incident at the county’s election center. Blaney said in a June 15 hearing that his authority to address those matters would evaporate if the appellate court issued a stay in the case.After that hearing, Blaney also ordered the parties to attend a mediation session. Spokespeople on both sides did not immediately respond to a question from Votebeat about whether that meeting would proceed as scheduled on June 22.It’s also unclear what the decision means for a separate grievance filed by Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who contends that Heap’s legal team is encroaching on her duties as the county’s top lawyer. Spokesperson Erin Pellett told Votebeat on Thursday that Mitchell and her legal team were “still evaluating the impact on their case.”Sasha Hupka is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Sasha at shupka@votebeat.org.
