County Recorder Heap's Team Sent Flawed Voter Letter to 83,000—Emails Reveal Approval

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap declared last week that he wasn't to blame for the mailing of erroneous letters that alarmed 83,000 voters.

"This error was not caused by internal mistakes at the recorder's office," Heap said Friday in a prepared statement.

Emails obtained by 12News Monday through a public records request contradict Heap's claim.

A county vendor confirmed it printed the wrong letter after one of Heap's employees approved it.

"These are good to go," the employee said via email, after being asked to review a 166,000-page PDF—2-page letters for 83,000 voters.

Fiasco threatens vital task

The first-term Republican, in office for six months, campaigned on a pledge to restore trust in elections.

The letters fiasco threatens to erode voters' trust even further while undermining the vital task Heap set out to do.

According to Heap, the 83,000 Maricopa County voters should have received different letters entirely — ones requesting proof of citizenship to vote.

These longtime voters were caught up in a computer glitch discovered last year that affected their registration status.

The affected voters will have 90 days to take action once they receive the corrected letters, which are being mailed out by the vendor responsible for the error, according to the recorder's office.

Letter said voters left state

Heap's letter last week incorrectly warned 83,000 voters that their registration was at risk.

Their application for a driver's license in another state indicated they had left Arizona, the letter said. That was also false.

The recorder's office was bombarded by thousands of calls and emails.

"My first thought was maybe there was some sort of identity theft," Kris Bliznik of North Phoenix said in an interview.

It took Heap almost two days, until 5 p.m. on June 27, to publicly confirm the letters were wrong. He blamed an unnamed third-party vendor for the mistake.

We're now learning that Heap wasn't telling the whole story. His office apparently does share responsibility.

What the emails reveal

Here are the illuminating segments of the e-mail chain between executives at the Phoenix printing business, Complete Print Shop, and Heap's staff.

The emails are from early June, when the letters were about to be printed, and Monday, June 30:

• On Monday morning, several days after the voter uproar, a county employee - it's not clear whether this was someone with the recorder's office - sought answers from Nick Huynh, operations manager at Complete Print Shop: "Can you let me know what happened?"
• Huynh responded: "I don't want to point a finger at anyone on this. I and Joe have decided that it's our fault and we will re-do everything and cover for the postages."

"Joe" is Joe Bui, one of the owners. The shop has been an approved Maricopa County vendor for seven years, according to county procurement records.

• Complete Print Shop acknowledged making a "big mistake" by emailing the wrong letter to be reviewed by the recorder's office.

But Huynh went on: The letter was approved by the recorder's office.

• The email chain shows that on June 10, the printer asked a recorder's office employee: "Please let me know if the proof on the link below is approved for production."

The proof was 166,000 pages—the same two-page letter for 83,000 voters.

A few hours later, the recorder's office employee responded:

"These are good to go. Please prioritize printing and mailing these 83,000 notices first."

Heap's response

Heap issued the following statement after 12News' reporting aired:

"Today, in response to new information uncovered during our investigation into the factors that led up to 83,000 receiving erroneous letters, Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap issued the following update.

Last week, my office notified the public of voter correspondence sent in error by a third-party vendor for Maricopa County. As we have continued to investigate what occurred to ensure that it does not occur again, I became aware of a breakdown in communication that ultimately led to this error. The error appears to have been twofold. The first error occurred when the vendor inadvertently switched the content of the proofs. The second error occurred when an employee of the MCRO mistakenly approved that incorrect proof. As soon as the team at MCRO became aware of the error, we began working to remedy the situation. At this time, nearly all corrected correspondence has been mailed.

Let me be extremely clear, no voter records were [affected] due to this error.

While this was ultimately a mistake on the part of the third-party vendor, I take responsibility for the breakdown in communication that led to the error. We have taken corrective action to ensure that an error like this will not occur in the future."

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