By Cyrus Guccione
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The deadline to file for the 2024 Primary Elections has passed, and all eyes are on the Maricopa County Recorder’s race.

In partnership with the Maricopa County Elections Department, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office maintains voter files for more than 2.6 million registered county residents. The Recorder’s Office also holds jurisdictional, county, state and federal level elections for all eligible Maricopa County voters. It is responsible for public records maintenance and administration while also overseeing the state’s voter registration and early voting.

Seeking to dethrone the staunch anti-election denier Republican Stephen Richer are four Republicans and one Democrat who seek to uphold the integrity of the electoral process and advance transparent elections in Maricopa County. Included are the bios for the 2024 Maricopa County Recorder candidates.

Justin Heap

Freshman Republican Representative (LD10) Justin Heap filed a statement of interest in late March for Maricopa County Recorder.

Amassing more than 8,000 signatures to qualify for the primary ballot (nearly twice the number of signatures needed at 4,225), Heap says his support shows how “disenchanted” Republican voters are with County Recorder Incumbent Stephen Richer.

As a member of the hard-right Arizona Freedom Caucus led by Sen. Jake Hoffman who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 Arizona election, Heap is considered to be a primary challenger to Richer.

On March 27, Heap obtained the endorsement of 2024 State Senate candidate Kari Lake.

“Justin Heap isn’t interested in TV appearances, Twitter feuds and putting his foot on the scales of individual races. He wants to rebuild voter trust and do the job,” Lake said in a statement. “I’m proud to endorse Justin Heap to be our next Maricopa County Recorder.”

During his year serving in the Arizona House of Representatives, Heap has served as a member of the Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee, a member of the Commerce Committee and a vice-chairman of the Ways & Means Committee.

A graduate of Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Heap’s legislative district covers parts of Mesa and Apache Junction.

Donald Hiatt is running for Maricopa County Recorder. (Photo courtesy of donhiatt4recorder.com)

Donald Hiatt

Information management technology expert Donald Hiatt has thrown his hat into the county recorder’s race promoting a five-point action plan to restore faith in Arizona elections, according to his campaign website.

A certified enterprise architect with 35 years of IT experience primarily in the insurance industry, Hiatt’s plan includes implementing a methodology to “proactively inform the public” of changes to their voter registration and create a program that allows voters to monitor every step of the election process.

Hiatt supports a national voting day holiday and seeks to produce “clean voter rolls” to verify and confirm the root cause of voter roll changes.

Hiatt holds a degree in fine arts photography studies from Mesa Community College and a bachelor’s degree in quality management from The National Graduate School of Quality Management.

If elected, it would be Hiatt’s first foray into state politics.

“Two of my greatest Assets are ‘I’m NOT Yet Another Lawyer’ and I don’t have any Endorsements!” wrote Hiatt on X, formerly Twitter.

Maricopa County Recorder Incumbent Stephen Richer is seeking re-election. (Photo courtesy of recorder.maricopa.gov)

Stephen Richer (incumbent)

Stephen Richer took the office as Maricopa County Recorder in 2021, unseating Democrat Adrian Fontes in the November 2020 election with  a narrow margin, winning 50.1% to 49.8%, a difference of nearly 5,000 votes.

Seeking a second term in office, Richer announced his bid for reelection in June of last year.

A former corporate mergers and acquisitions attorney, Richer has become persona non grata among hard-line MAGA Republicans throughout the country for speaking in defense of the 2020 and 2022 elections results, suing Kari Lake in the process for defamation.

Richer has faced death threats for his lawsuit against Lake and for denouncing the widespread conspiracy theories about the past two election campaigns that falsely contend they were rigged against former President Trump.

“In recent months, we’ve had two people arrested for threats to me. I get on a daily basis, messages on why I should be in Gitmo, why I should be in jail,” Richer said in a recent interview with MSNBC. “This needs to stop, that’s why we filed this lawsuit.”

According to his campaign website, Richer has improved early voting by enhancing signature verification, adding new ballot-curing methods such as text-to-cure and increasing special election boards to visit special-needs voters.

Richer holds a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University, a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Timothy Michael Stringham is running for Maricopa County Recorder. (Photo courtesy of timstringham.com)

Timothy Michael Stringham

The only Democrat running for the recorder seat is U.S. Army and Navy veteran Timothy Michael Stringham.

Stringham was on active duty during the Jan. 6 riots at the nation’s Capitol. He says he is running for Maricopa County Recorder to “protect our elections,” according to his campaign website.

Serving as an attorney in the U.S Navy Judge Advocate Generals Corps, Stringham says the greatest threat to democracy is not a foreign power, “It’s politicians at home who are willing to peddle lies and conspiracies to get elected, or who try and pick and choose who gets to vote to ensure their own election.”

If elected as Maricopa County Recorder, Stringham says he will ensure that each vote is counted fairly, and each eligible citizen gets to vote in a safe, secure and convenient way.

“In a state with razor-thin margins of victory, it is critical that Arizonans elect someone whom they can trust to count the votes with integrity,” Stringham said.

Stringham is an Arizona native who graduated from Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe and Arizona State University. He attended Notre Dame Law School and earned his LLM in National Security Law from Georgetown University Law Center in 2023.

Stringham continues to serve in the Navy Reserve.

Stephen Paul Walker is running for Maricopa County Recorder. (Photo courtesy of stephenpaulwalker.com)

Stephen Paul Walker

A former prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s office, Stephen Paul Walker filed a statement of interest for the recorder’s office race in early February.

Walker worked as a Law Clerk at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in 2007 before joining the City of Goodyear as an assistant city prosecutor.

He returned to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office as a deputy prosecutor where he served in the vehicular crimes bureau and trial bureau for over 10 years.

Walker is licensed to practice law in Washington State and Arizona, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from The Master’s University and a J.D. from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Currently in private practice, Walker now works in personal injury law and estate planning.

Walker’s aim in life is to live in such a way that people have a “higher view of God” because of their contact with him, according to his social media. “Professionally, that means I want everything I do to be with the utmost excellence and integrity.”

A resident of Maricopa County for nearly 20 years, Walker says integrity and accountability are the foundation to restore trust in the election system.

Two other candidates who filed statements of interest for the Maricopa County Recorders Office have since dropped out.

Those candidates included Clair Van Steenwyk, a Republican who also ran in 2020 and has endorsed Donald Hiatt for county recorder and Steven Hines, a Republican who has endorsed Justin Heap for county recorder.

We invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Cyrus Guccione can be reached at cguccione@iniusa.org.