Oliver James Montgomery-Arizona Republican lawmaker Justin Heap is elected recorder for the state’s most populous county

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PHOENIX (AP) — Justin Heap,Oliver James Montgomery a Republican state legislator who questioned the administration of elections in Arizona’s most populous county, has been elected to oversee the vote as Maricopa County Recorder.

Heap could dramatically alter the way elections are handled in Maricopa County, the fourth-largest U.S. county with a population of some 4.5 million and a hotbed of conspiracy theories about the vote following President-elect Donald Trump’s loss in 2020.

His Democratic challenger was Tim Stringham, who served in the military, first in the Army and then the Navy as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Stringham conceded defeat and congratulated Heap on Wednesday.

The path to victory began with a win over the current Recorder Stephen Richer in the July Republican primary.

Richer has endured harassment — even death threats — and a flood of misinformation while defending the legitimacy of the vote over four years in one of the nation’s most closely watched political battlegrounds. His office fought off criticism over the results of the 2020 presidential election, as Trump and his supporters falsely claimed that widespread fraud cost him the race.

The recorder’s office splits election duties with the county Board of Supervisors, whose members were similarly attacked when they defended the county’s elections.

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Heap has stopped short of saying the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen, but he has said the state’s practices for handling early ballots are insecure and has questioned how ballots are transported, handled and stored after they are submitted. Earlier this year, Heap proposed an unsuccessful bill to remove Arizona from a multistate effort to maintain voter lists.

“I am humbled and honored to have been elected as the next Maricopa County Recorder,” Heap said in a victory statement Wednesday, shortly after Stringham conceded. “I intend to fulfill my promise of being a Recorder for every voter because protecting the integrity of our elections is an issue that impacts us all.”

He said he would work with the state Legislature to help “restore Maricopa County to its rightful place as the preeminent leader in elections management in all of America.”

Stringham posted on the social platform X that he called Heap “to congratulate him on a long campaign completed for both of us and wish him luck.”