The Maricopa County Recorder's Office is a county office located in Maricopa County, Arizona. It has three primary statutory functions: document recordation, voter registration, and early voting.
Stephen Richer is the 30th Recorder of Maricopa County. He was elected in November 2020 and took office January 2021.[1] Richer defeated the Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes by 4,599 votes.[2] [3] Stephen Richer graduated with a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and obtained a juris doctor degree from the University of Chicago.
In 2019, Richer conducted a partisan audit and drafted a 229 page report which aired unfounded election conspiracies related to the 2018 election.[4] Richer's audit alleged Fontes engaged in partisanship and questionable election related practices conspiring with Democratic candidates to gain partisan advantage while presenting an affidavit of a voter who claimed that when he arrived at the polling location he was given a ballot that was pre-filled out for Democratic candidates Sinema and Stanton as anecdotal evidence, which Richer then insinuated was evidence of a more widespread voter fraud conspiracy by Fontes to rig the 2018 election. [5]
After taking office, Richer has faced scrutiny from his constituent base who elected him to office based on promises that if elected he would solve the election related issues he aired in his audit of the 2018 election. Most notably, Republican Kari Lake has criticized Stephen Richer after losing the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race by over 16,000 votes.[6] [7]
| Stephen Richer | 2021 - Present | |
| Adrian Fontes | 2017 - 2020 | |
| Helen Purcell | 1989 - 2016 | |
| Keith Poletis | 1984 - 1988 | |
| Bill Henry | 1978 - 1983 | |
| Tom Freestone | 1974 - 1978 | |
| Paul N. Marston | 1969 -1974 | |
| Clifford H. Ward | 1963 - 1968 | |
| N.C. "Kelly" Moore Dec | 1957 - 1963 | |
| Roger G. Laveen | 1939 - 1956 | |
| William H. Linville | 1931 - 1938 | |
| J.K. Ward | 1929 - 1930 | |
| William H. Linville | 1923 - 1928 | |
| Edith M. Jacobs | 1919 - 1922 | |
| Vernon L. Vaughn | 1912 - 1918 | |
| Clay F. Leonard | 1905 - 1912 | |
| B. Frank McFall | 1901 - 1904 | |
| Frederick W. Sheridan | 1897 - 1900 | |
| John W. Kincaid | 1895 - 1896 | |
| Winthrop Sears | 1895 | |
| Neri Ficklin Osborn | 1889 -1894 | |
| Henry Lincoln Wharton | 1887 - 1888 | |
| William Robertson Morris | 1885 - 1886 | |
| Neri Ficklin Osborn | 1883 - 1884 | |
| Richard Frank Kirkland | 1881 - 1882 | |
| William F. McNulty | 1877 - 1880 | |
| James A. Parker | 1875 - 1876 | |
| Charles F. Cate | 1873 - 1874 | |
| J.R. Darroche | 1872 | |
| James L. Mercer | 1871 - 1872 |
The Maricopa County Recorder's Office's first recorded document took place in 1871 and was recorded by the first Maricopa County Recorder, James L. Mercer.[8]
The Recorder's Office has three main statutory functions in Maricopa County: document recordation, voter registration, and early voting.
One of the responsibilities of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office is the recordation and maintenance of public documents. These public records include an array of documents but the vast majority are real-estate related. The Office records approximately 1 million documents annually and interacts with 3,000 to 5,000 customers on a daily basis.[9] Currently, the Recorder's Office offers over 50 million searchable public documents dating back to 1871. The majority of documents are recorded digitally. Documents can now be E-recorded in Maricopa County.
In June 2023, the Maricopa County Recorder's Office launched Maricopa Title Alert.[10] This program monitors recorded documents in Maricopa County and alerts subscribers if a document is recorded in a specific individual's name and/or business name. There are currently over 45,000 individuals signed up for this free service.[11]
The Maricopa County Recorder's Office is responsible for maintaining the voter registration data for all of Maricopa County. As of October 2023, there were over 2.5 million active registered voters in Maricopa County.[12]
Recorder Stephen Richer highlighted in the Maricopa Recorder's Office's 2022 Annual Report his work in "...cleaning the voter rolls..." and mentioned how, despite being the fastest growing county in the United States, the total number of active registered voters decreased by 160,000.[13] He mentioned how he accomplished this by making this a priority for his office and through the hiring of a new Voter Registration Department Director, increasing staff, and improving technology.
The Maricopa County Recorder's Office directs the daily operations of all election services, as it relates to campaign finance, candidate filing, and early voting activities, in accordance with all applicable laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations. The Director will provide direct oversight for the majority. of election services for which the County Recorder is statutorily responsible. The Recorder's duties are expansive with regard to voter registration, early voting, and provisional ballots. Some of these responsibilities, as defined in Arizona Statue are listed below.[14]
Additionally, the office partners with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in the planning and executing of jurisdictional, county, state, and federal level elections.