Three Republicans running for Maricopa County recorder traded barbs during a Monday debate that largely centered around voting conspiracies.

County recorders are statutorily tasked with managing public records, such as property documents. But the seat is best known for the tremendous power it holds over voter registration and early voting.

In Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, the pivotal position is headed for a three-way primary showdown. State lawmaker Justin Heap and information technology professional Don Hiatt are both challenging incumbent Stephen Richer for the Republican nomination. The discussion, organized by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission, was moderated by The Arizona Republic’s Richard Ruelas and was broadcast live.

The race comes as election officials see threats and harassment. The county also saw widespread technical issues with its ballot printers on Election Day in 2022, which led to lines at some polling sites and damaged voter trust. All three Republicans are running on platforms of election integrity — but in practice, their plans look very different.

Those contrasts were on full display on Monday evening. Hiatt said he believed the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen — although audits and recounts have not found evidence proving that claim. He said public pressure amounting to “lawfare” was impacting judges’ decisions in recent election challenges.

“I do not believe the judges are acting fairly on their own,” he said.

Heap stopped short of saying recent elections were fraudulent, but echoed doubts commonly used by election deniers to fuel that conspiracy. He said there were “inconsistences and illegalities that happened.”

“The bigger issue than the potential for fraud or maladministration is that the voters have lost confidence in the system,” Heap said.

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Richer pushed back against his competitors. He said the results of recent elections were accurate, and accused Heap of “hemming and hawing” to avoid answering the question. Richer said courts have looked at the facts and broadly rejected election challenges.

“Many cases have been filed over the last three-and-a-half years,” Richer said. “My office has lost zero races — zero — because we follow the law.”

He also defended his authoring of a 2019 audit of then-Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes. The report was commissioned by the Arizona Republican Party and concluded Fontes didn’t violate any laws during the 2018 general election but questioned some of his actions.

“There’s nothing in there about a stolen election,” he said.

After the debate, Richer told reporters he planned to vote for Democrat Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election. He said he voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2020.

On social media, Heap quickly jumped on Richer’s remarks, saying he was the only candidate “with a proven conservative record.”

Whoever wins the upcoming state primary will face Democrat Tim Stringham, an attorney and a Navy Reserve officer, for the recorder’s seat in the general election. That race is also expected to focus on the future of democracy in Arizona.

Who are the candidates?

Richer, elected in 2020, is campaigning on his efforts to clean voter rolls and improve chain of custody documentation during his time in office. Along the way, he’s established himself as a staunch defender of the county’s elections and has pushed back on voting conspiracies and misinformation.

He’s also touted improvements on the non-elections side of the house, unveiling a free service to fight title fraud last year and improving customer service.

⁠On Monday, he pledged to continue to “follow the law.” Richer said he will remain committed to transparency and will keep taking steps to improve the efficiency of his office. That includes plans to launch a new website that will make it easier for the public to find and access property documents.

Heap and Hiatt both have voiced issues with county elections. Heap, who has previously supported legislation to remove Arizona from a multistate voter registration list maintenance effort, has pledged to clean voter rolls. He also has promised faster election results, although he hasn’t specified how he would accomplish that within the framework of existing state law.

Heap’s campaign website mentions nothing about the recorder’s non-election duties, and he didn’t bring up the topic during the debate. He said Monday that he was running for recorder because he felt the county’s previous elections had made it “a national laughingstock.” If elected, he said he would focus on “reestablishing confidence” in the county’s elections.

“We can fix this system,” Heap said, later adding that it’s “time to replace someone in that office.”

Hiatt also commits to cleaning voter rolls and says he would publicly release election-related data, including detailed logs from machines that tally votes. Hiatt says he would streamline processes for records management.

While debating, Hiatt said he isn’t “a career politician” and that he didn’t see the recorder seat as “a stepping stone to my next position.”

“I think there’s some issues that we need to look at as to the integrity of the person in the office,” Hiatt said.

Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County recorder candidates spar over election integrity