Maricopa County Recorder Heap Shatters Election Records

Summary: Signature Verifications Wrapped in Blazing 48 Hours with Groundbreaking New Process Adding More Integrity, Security and Transparency -- Despite Constant Roadblocks from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

PHOENIX – Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap announced last Monday that his office has completed signature verification and voter outreach calls for every single ballot with a signature discrepancy—shattering every previous timeline in Arizona history.

"All calls to voters with signature inconsistencies have been completed," Heap posted on X. "Finishing both signature verification and voter calls within 48 hours of Election Day shatters all previous timeframes for elections with more than 100,000 Election Day drop-offs."

Voters gave praise to Recorder Heap, citing that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors had kept him "tied with hands behind his back" due to a late 2024 Shared Services Agreement led by now-Chairman Thomas Galvin to seize the statutory duties from incoming Recorder Justin Heap. The entire 2025 Board of Supervisors has consistently voted unanimously to retain these duties, resources, servers, staff, and software from Recorder Heap, including a now $9 million allocation that hijacks funds from his budget, including a $4 million fund allocated by the legislature in their most recent budget.

What is Signature Verification?

Signature verification is a statutory requirement, where workers must review the early ballot affidavit signatures for inconsistencies to identify if the voter signed the envelope, making it eligible for the County to process the ballot. When inconsistencies are found, the ballot is sent through a process called curing, which requires voters to verify their signature so that their ballot can proceed to tabulation.

Why This Matters?

Voters have widely criticized the signature verification process as being prone to allowing fraud to go unchecked. Recorder Heap's Chief of Staff, Sam Stone, posted during the early signature review period that they are finding "a LOT of couples where one fills out both ballots, every election."

Stone also noticed a "shocking number of VBM [vote by mail] ballots in Maricopa County with Portland, OR phone numbers," signaling concerns that outside out-of-state organizations may be involved.

Recorder Heap Implements new groundbreaking Signature Verification process

This glass-shattering record comes as Recorder Heap announced significant improvements to the signature verification process earlier in the year:

• Party Identification has been removed from the signature verification process for all levels of review.

• Increased access for Party observers to the process

Recorder Heap's announcement stated, "Previously, voters were assured by election officials that no party or personally identifying data was available to signature verifiers. In my review of our election processes I have discovered this was not the case. Signature verification workers who scrolled down the page would still see this information on the scans of older ballots."

More recently, Recorder Heap's team also announced, at various public speaking engagements across the valley and at the August EZAZ.org Pie Club meeting, the launch of a groundbreaking new signature verification process. This process adds more levels of scrutiny and security, more than doubling the number of times a signature is reviewed versus the previous process.

Here's how the new process works:

1. Affidavit signatures are displayed in a movable application, with the three most recent signatures and the most recent voter registration form signature, shown in a full-screen quad format.

2. Two verifiers trained to evaluate inconsistencies, working separately and from different political parties, review each signature.

   • If the two verifiers in Level 1 agree to approve the voter affidavit signature, the ballot moves forward to tabulation.

   • If the two verifiers in Level 1 agree that there are inconsistencies in the affidavit signature, it is forwarded to Level 2 for further verification. If the first reviewer in Level 2 determines it is a questionable signature, the signature moves to Shell Review (see Shell Review below).

   • If the two verifiers in Level 1 disagree, the process proceeds to a second round involving two more advanced additional verifiers from different parties with access to the full list of voter signatures on file called Level 2. Round two typically takes longer because it's a more intensive review.

3. If there is still disagreement in Level 2, it moves to a 3rd round call Shell Review.

   • Shell Review verification is conducted by highly experienced verifiers who also have access to the full set of voter signatures on file while holding the affidavit and signature in hand. Shell Review typically takes longer because it is a more intensive review.

   • If the Shell Review determines that the affidavit signature has inconsistencies, it is referred to the Curing Team. The affidavit envelope holding the ballot is held without moving the ballot forward to tabulation unless the voter verifies they signed the affidavit and verifies their identity.

The Recorder's team maintains a constant eye on the process through quality controls and reporting at every step.

The Curing Process

The Recorder's Curing Team has multiple options for voters to verify signatures and every level requires the voter to verify their identity:

• The voter dashboard through BeBallotReady.vote

• By phone, where an election official calls the voter. The voter must verify their full name, residential address, either the last four of their social security number or their driver's license number, their mother's maiden name, and their email address.

• By text for voters who opted in to receive messages

• By email for voters who provided email contact information

The previous signature verification under the former Recorder Stephen Richer had two levels of signature review before curing.

________

EZcivics.org is funded by our readers. If you found this news brief educational, consider chipping in to fuel our work by going HERE.