by Staff Reporter | Feb 19, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Republican Party is picking sides in the ongoing spat between the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and County Recorder Justin Heap.
The party’s new chair, Sergio Arellano, issued a press release on Tuesday commending Supervisor Mark Stewart for speaking out against the rest of the board for their posturing to oust Heap from office.
“I appreciate those Republicans who are able to ignore the rancor being generated by those outside the process, and who are willing to listen to the voices of those of us who want a solution that unites Republicans behind the proposition that Arizona voters deserve a process that respects their choices, and that the power of the people, exercised through their vote, prevails and is honored,” said Arellano.
Arellano advised voters to focus on the merits of policy over the noise of personal conflicts in the matter; the chair agreed with Stewart that Heap should have full restoration of elections administration duties under the Shared Services Agreement (SSA).
“Ignore the fake news and those who are intent on whipping up hysteria to further their own personal ambition, but we as a Party must deliver on real and effective reform and restore full faith in our elections,” said Arellano. “Recorder Heap must be allowed to do his job and then he must do it properly. The same goes for our County Supervisors. I am grateful to Supervisor Stewart for seeking a path that accomplishes all of this and encourage everyone involved to follow his lead and reach an agreement of which we might all be proud.”
The board ordered Heap to appear on Wednesday to provide a report and testify on his administration and allegations of voter disenfranchisement made by his office.
It is the latest escalation in the public spat between the two over who has primary control over elections via the SSA. The current SSA, all but gutting the recorder’s office of elections duties, was put in place by a “lame duck” recorder, Stephen Richer, and board majority in their final months in office. After Heap failed to convince the board to reverse course on that SSA, Heap sued last summer.
Supervisor Stewart announced on Monday that he sought outside legal counsel to negotiate with Heap over the SSA, since the board and recorder’s office appear to have hit a stalemate.
Stewart retained counsel after failing to receive a response to his request to postpone Wednesday’s meeting from Chair Kate Brophy McGee. The supervisor said all members of the board ought to have additional time to consult with counsel about negotiations with Heap.
“My counsel requires additional time to fully evaluate the issues raised, assess the scope and legal basis for the required direct report, and advise me accordingly. Proceeding before that review is complete would not allow me to participate in the discussion or any potential vote with the preparation and confidence that such a consequential action demands,” said Stewart. “Out of respect for the institution, the Recorder’s Office, and most importantly, the residents we serve, I believe it is prudent to delay consideration of this item until all members of the Board have had sufficient opportunity to consult with counsel and fully assess the implications.”
Stewart also denounced the possibility of Heap’s removal should he refuse to show on Wednesday.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 11, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The state’s elections portal for candidates experienced another outage, prompting leaders of both political parties to cast blame at the other.
The E-Qual system experienced an outage that lasted from Friday through Sunday. This portal allows voters to sign candidate nominating petitions and give qualifying contributions. It also houses some sensitive candidate data.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes blamed the outage on the accelerated primary election schedule. Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a Republican-led bill into law on Friday that moved the primary election to the second to last Tuesday in July, a bipartisan decision to accommodate military voters.
Fontes said a “typo” caused the outage, which he promised was “temporary” on Friday. However, he said his team wasn’t to blame. Fontes said he was dealing with insufficient staffing and outdated systems caused by the GOP-controlled legislature.
The secretary of state put a price on his problems: $17 million to overhaul the election and candidate-facing systems. A one-time funding boost that occurred in 2024 wasn’t enough, Fontes said.
In a premature announcement on Friday that would quickly be proven false, Fontes claimed the system was fixed. Fontes again stressed that the outages his team was experiencing were preventable — the fault that caused the outage had less to do with a “typo” but inadequate funding from the legislature.
“System interruptions are preventable and my office will continue requesting the necessary funding to mitigate issues in the future,” said Fontes.
In a longer video statement from the comfort of his Super Bowl setup on Sunday, Fontes said E-Qual was “fragile,” “old,” and “outdated” due to the legislature’s refusal to provide fiscal support for updates. Fontes further promised that important data relating to tabulation and voter information weren’t impacted.
“Some people wanted to politicize this,” said Fontes. “The failure is the legislature that has been exploiting this longtime issue that I’ve been trying to get fixed for years and they’re not funding it. It’s as if they broke it and they want to blame someone else for breaking it.”
Fontes later disclosed to reporters that one single person was in charge of maintaining the main election management systems for their office. Fontes said he pays a lot to keep that individual on staff as a contractor.
Republican lawmakers rejected Fontes’ attempt to push the blame onto them.
State Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-LD3), who is campaigning to unseat Fontes this November, said more money couldn’t fix incompetence.
“Even with millions in additional funding, voters are still being disenfranchised by his incompetence,” said Kolodin. “Waste of money!”
In a similar vein, State Rep. David Livingston (R-LD28) questioned how Fontes’ office caused such a major outage over a typo — and how another tens of millions of dollars could have prevented such an error.
“I think the other information, changing July 21, should just be standard operating procedure, and they shouldn’t need any money to do that,” said Livingston. “And if they can’t handle doing that, they probably shouldn’t be running the secretary of state’s office at all.”
Livingston is vice chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which Fontes called out when identifying those who were to blame.
Some lawmakers had a little less to say on the subject.
The new chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, Sergio Arellano, said Fontes was again proving his inability to own his mistakes.
“Arizonans expect elections to be administered with competence and seriousness, and when preventable failures occur, they demand accountability — not silence, not excuses, and not business as usual,” said Arellano.
Last summer, Iranian hackers breached the E-Qual system under Fontes’ watch.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jan 31, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The first statement from the new chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, Sergio Arellano, focused on the “radical” recent actions by Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Arellano addressed Hobbs’ repudiation of Mayes’ remarks concerning ICE agents and protesters.
“Governor Katie Hobbs is so radical that she just vetoed tax relief for struggling families, but even she finds Kris Mayes too radical,” stated Arellano. “Voters elected President Trump on the promise that he would deport criminal illegal aliens, and he is keeping that promise, including thousands of violent offenders, rapists, and murderers. Our ICE officers are following orders and protecting our communities. We stand by our officers and urge these violent agitators and leaders, like Mayes, who encourage them with reckless rhetoric, to stop putting our men and women in blue in harm’s way.”
Arellano was elected over the weekend despite low party attendance, prolonged delays, and organizational challenges, as AZ Free News reported. Arellano is an Army combat veteran and Republican activist.
Earlier this month the attorney general claimed in an interview with 12News that Arizonans had the right to shoot masked federal law enforcement based on the state’s stand your ground law.
“[I]f you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” said Mayes.
In the days that followed the airing of her legal defense for would-be shooters, Mayes’ law enforcement liaison resigned. Now, the governor has some criticism for the attorney general.
In an interview with Capitol Media Services on Thursday, Hobbs refused to defend Mayes’ remarks. She said the attorney general’s comments were “inappropriate” and advised her to retract her statement. The governor indicated Mayes’ remarks were endangering law enforcement officers.
“It is the responsibility of every elected official to turn down the temperature and do everything we can to be very careful with our language about ramping up the potential for violence,” said Hobbs. “We are seeing across the county people’s fear increasing and the potential for violence.”
Mayes’ spokesman Richie Taylor responded that Hobbs misunderstood the attorney general, that her positing a defense of lethal force against a masked ICE agent doesn’t equate to making it legal to shoot a cop.
Taylor said Hobbs should be more concerned about the alleged public safety threat posed by President Donald Trump’s mass immigration enforcement efforts.
“The actions of Donald Trump’s federal agents are endangering public safety and putting local and state law enforcement and the public in danger,” said Taylor. “And that is what should concern the governor.”
Following widespread bipartisan flak over her rhetoric, Mayes issued a video defending her remarks as a mischaracterization by “right-wing media.” Mayes said her remarks had more to do with speaking out against alleged ongoing abuses of power and violations of the Constitution.
“Arizonans do not want masked agents entering their homes without warrants. It is un-American and it threatens the rights and safety of everyone in our state,” said Mayes. “We have all witnessed the increasingly chaotic and dangerous activity of ICE agents in cities across the country.”
Republican lawmakers in the state legislature have advanced a resolution urging Mayes to resign over the comments. The Senate passed the resolution on Thursday.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Jan 29, 2026 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Arizona Republican Party’s annual meeting on this past Saturday drew less robust attendance than expected and was characterized by prolonged delays and organizational challenges, even as delegates elected Sergio Arellano as the party’s new chair.
The meeting, held in Prescott Valley, was scheduled to conclude by approximately 5 p.m. but it extended into the evening as party officials conducted hand counts and resolved procedural disputes. Leadership results — including the chair’s race — were not announced until after 8 p.m.
The Epoch Times Arizona reported that the meeting was “over an hour late getting started,” and noted rising tensions inside. Covering the opening remarks by former-Chair Gina Swoboda, the outlet wrote, “Swoboda is effectively filibustering while the meeting can’t officially begin—opening with a unity pep talk amid ongoing controversy over her and school choice.”
Several attendees described the meeting environment and turnout on social media. Independent journalist Christy Kelly wrote, “FACT: The turnout for the AZGOP state meeting was significantly depressed,” responding to a post from gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, who described the turnout as “amazing.”
Columnist Rachel Alexander noted the significant delay in her coverage via X, writing, “The AZGOP’s election is now going on at 6:20 pm (it’s supposed to be over by 5 pm, started at 8 am).”
Delegates conducted leadership elections during the meeting. After two rounds of voting for state party chairmanship, Sergio Arellano, an Army combat veteran and Republican activist, won the runoff against former First Vice Chair Pam Kirby. Arellano succeeds Gina Swoboda, the outgoing chair, who is pursuing a Congressional Campaign in Arizona’s District 1.
Before voting commenced, delegates debated whether to seat 16 “fractional” state committeemen whose party positions had been challenged under interpretive readings of the bylaws. The floor ultimately voted to seat those members, allowing the leadership election to proceed without a formal challenge.
The prolonged process included a full hand count of ballots for multiple leadership roles, as well as reportedly 20 proposed bylaw changes, which contributed to the extended meeting timeline. As reported by the Epoch Times Arizona, debate on the bylaw changes was prohibited, allowing “no member discussion, no back-and-forth, no amendments from the floor.”
The outlet noted, “People in the room are visibly upset and uncomfortable about the decision to move forward with zero debate on such a large set of changes.”
Over forty minutes after the meeting’s conclusion at 8 p.m., Garret Archer, Data and Political Analyst for ABC15, wrote, “Only a few state committee members are left waiting for the results of the runoff chair vote.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Dec 11, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Arizona Republican Party is calling a recent court ruling a major victory for election integrity, but how much the decision will actually change voter roll maintenance remains an open question.
In a statement released this week, Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda announced that the Arizona Court of Appeals, in Petersen, et al. v. Fontes, upheld an Arizona law that requires counties to begin the cancellation process when a voter swears on a jury questionnaire that they no longer live in the county. Swoboda described the ruling as a necessary correction that will help ensure clean voter rolls ahead of future elections.
“This ruling is a major victory for our state and for every Arizona voter,” Swoboda said in the update, framing the ruling as part of a broader effort to restore public confidence in the state’s elections.
“Cleaner rolls protect voters. That’s the bottom line. No more dodging the law, no more loopholes, and no more games with Arizona’s voter rolls. Republicans in Arizona are fighting to ensure our elections are secure and stopping extreme leftist policies that would have thrown our elections into chaos. This is a huge step forward, but our work continues. We’ll keep working to restore trust, enforce the law, and deliver an election system every Arizonan can count on.”
In the AZGOP statement, the party referred to the ruling as “a significant defeat for Secretary of State Adrian Fontes,” noting that the state’s second-highest-ranking Democrat was “forced to abandon his extreme rule that would have allowed counties to toss out every vote cast if a canvass was submitted late,” describing the policy as “reckless,” and saying it “jeopardized lawful ballots and undermined public confidence.”
Republicans are celebrating the decision as a significant victory for structural reform; however, the ruling itself paints a more nuanced legal picture.
On the jury-questionnaire issue, the court held that federal law does not preempt Arizona’s statute, A.R.S. § 16-165(A)(9)(b), which directs county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration if the voter fails to respond to a mailed notice after telling a jury commissioner they no longer reside in the county. The opinion explains that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) allows removal when a voter “confirms in writing” that they have changed residence and does not require that confirmation go directly to the county recorder. Instead, the court found that a signed juror questionnaire can qualify as that written confirmation:
“Because the Seventh Circuit precedent does not conflict with A.R.S. § 16-165.A.9, the NVRA does not preempt that Arizona statute. … Here, the county recorder sends the notice only when a person signs (under penalty of perjury) a written juror questionnaire saying the person no longer resides in the county. A.R.S. § 16-165.A.9(b). That notice satisfies the NVRA.”
Under the statute, the juror form does not lead to automatic cancellation. Instead, it triggers a process: the recorder must send a notice by forwardable mail warning that, if the voter does not respond within 35 days, “the county recorder shall cancel the person’s registration.” The 2023 Elections Procedures Manual had directed counties to move such voters to an inactive list instead of canceling their registrations, but the court concluded that approach conflicted with the statute and therefore exceeded the Secretary of State’s authority.
Swoboda and other GOP leaders also highlighted language in the 2023 manual that would have instructed the Secretary of State to proceed with a statewide canvass without counting any county whose official canvass arrived late. The appeals court, however, declined to rule on that provision, finding the challenge moot because Fontes had already replaced it in the draft of the 2025 manual with language committing to use “all available legal remedies” to compel a county board of supervisors to complete its canvass and “protect voters’ right to have their votes counted.”
While the ruling clearly reinforces that the Secretary of State’s election manual authority is bounded by statute, the judges also sided with Fontes on a key question involving the active early voting list. Upholding the superior court, the panel agreed that a separate statute governing removal notices for the active early voting list, A.R.S. § 16-544(H)(4), is not retroactive and applies starting with the 2024 election cycle:
“The 2023 Manual thus has the removal notice statute process start with the 2024 election cycle. The 2024 election cycle started on January 1, 2023. The superior court agreed with the Secretary. We thus affirm.”
Arizona counties regularly maintain their voter rolls using multiple data sources, including death records, address changes, and federal databases. Several prominent Republicans have argued that those procedures remain insufficient. The jury-form issue addressed in this case represents a narrow slice of that broader process. The practical number of registrations affected by the ruling is not yet known.
Arizona GOP leaders, including Swoboda, Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro, Senate President Warren Petersen, and former Speaker Ben Toma, have pursued multiple legal challenges over election procedures and voter-roll maintenance in recent years. Some of those efforts have succeeded in forcing procedural changes, while others have been dismissed on standing or jurisdictional grounds.
That track record makes this latest ruling politically significant even if its technical impact proves limited. For election integrity activists, it represents steady, gradual progress toward tightening controls. Critics, meanwhile, characterize them as partisan attempts to re-litigate election processes long after votes have been cast.
Swoboda’s update also criticized past election-related deadlines and procedures that Republicans argue undermined public trust, particularly citing disputes over ballot processing timelines and late canvassing.
Supporters of the ruling argue it restores a basic principle: if a voter swears they’ve left a county, that sworn statement can be used, under existing law, to start the notice-and-cancellation process so the registration does not remain active indefinitely, akin to voters trying to leave “the Hotel California,” as Swoboda quipped in a video posted to X. Opponents counter that aggressive roll maintenance must be handled carefully to avoid mistakenly removing eligible voters.
For now, the ruling directs how counties must treat sworn jury-form declarations moving forward, reaffirming the statutory process: notice, a waiting period, and eventual cancellation if there is no response. Whether that translates into large-scale voter-roll changes or simply a modest administrative correction will depend on how often such declarations occur and how county recorders opt to implement the ruling.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
