Alert: Notorious Maricopa County Botches Midterm Ballot Mailing - Same Mistake Happened to Thousands of Ballots
Maricopa County, Arizona, whose election processes came under strict scrutiny for irregularities following the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, once again made headlines Monday after revealing that over 3,000 ballots were mistakenly sent to voters a week before the mail-out date.
GOP County Recorder Justin Heaps’s office posted over the weekend on social media, “On October 2, Runbeck Election Services informed the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office that it had mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day, six days before the scheduled October 7 mailing date. The premature mailing was not authorized by the Recorder’s Office, which was notified only after it occurred.”
“Runbeck’s error affected only the timing of the mailing. The correct ballots were mailed to the correct voters,” the county recorder’s office added.
“Upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters may complete and return them normally. Any ballots received before early voting begins will remain unopened and securely stored until processing begins,” the statement read.
STATEMENT ON RUNBECK EARLY BALLOT PRE-MAILING
PHOENIX, Arizona — On October 2, Runbeck Election Services informed the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office that it had mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day, six days before the scheduled October 7 mailing date. The premature mailing was not authorized by the Recorder’s Office, which was notified only after it occurred.
Runbeck’s error affected only the timing of the mailing. The correct ballots were mailed to the correct voters.
Upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters may complete and return them normally. Any ballots received before early voting begins will remain unopened and securely stored until processing begins.
No voters were adversely affected. Runbeck accepts responsibility for their error and will work with the MCRO to implement appropriate controls to prevent it from ever happening again.
— Maricopa County Recorder’s Office (@RecordersOffice) October 4, 2026
Maricopa County, with its 4.7 million people, is the most populous county in Arizona, encompassing the Phoenix metro area, or about 60 percent of the state’s residents.
President Donald Trump won the county in 2024 over Kamala Harris with 51.1 percent to the then-vice president’s 47.5 percent.
However, he lost Maricopa to Joe Biden in 2020, 50.3 to 48.1 percent. Trump carried the county in 2016, 49.5 to 45.4 percent over Hillary Clinton.
On Monday, Trump responded to the report of Maricopa sending out thousands of mail-in ballots early, saying, “It’s crooked. So Maricopa just sent out thousands of ballots in error … and they have to be ashamed of themselves.”
“By the way, there were no errors. You know that, right?” he added. “Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just RIPPED Maricopa County, AZ for sending out THOUSANDS of ballots in “error” before early voting even began
“Maricopa is a very, VERY dishonest county.”
“They should be ASHAMED of themselves”
It wasn’t an “error” — they simply got CAUGHT. Besides, these “errors” practically ALWAYS benefit only ONE side 🤔
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 5, 2026
In March, the FBI seized election records from Maricopa County.
Arizona Senate President Warren Peterson confirmed that he had turned over 2020 election records his office possessed, but records the FBI seized also reportedly included those from the 2024 election.
Peterson posted at the time on social media, “President Trump is 100% correct. Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”
President Trump is 100% correct.
Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.
@realDonaldTrump https://t.co/C2T202VgZP
— Warren Petersen (@votewarren) March 9, 2026
The 2021 audit initiated by the Arizona Senate of Maricopa concluded that Biden had won the county in the 2020 presidential race.
However, then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office issued a report in April 2022 that noted that Maricopa County had not been forthcoming in turning over all the materials related to the 2020 general election that the AG’s Election Integrity Office had sought, despite multiple requests beginning in September 2021 after the Arizona Senate submitted the findings of its audit.
Brnovich wrote, “We can report that there are problematic system-wide issues that relate to early ballot handling and verification.”
His office found chain-of-custody issues in the handling of mail-in ballots by Maricopa County, concluding, “It is possible that somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 ballots were transported without proper chain of custody.”
In June 2025, GOP U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, whose district is in Maricopa County, wrote to then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, “We have known for years that our election processes in Arizona are flawed and ripe with opportunities for nefarious forces. There appears to be a clear pattern and practice of security breakdowns, system failures, and outright manipulation that must be investigated and remedied.”
Hamadeh lost to Democrat Kris Mayes in the 2022 state attorney general race by 511 votes out of the over 2.5 million cast.
On Election Day that year, when Republicans voted in significantly larger numbers than Democrats, at least 70 voting centers in Maricopa County had on-demand ballot printing issues, preventing the ballots from being scanned and counted on site and creating long voter lines.
In Anthem, which is in Hamadeh’s congressional district on the north side of Phoenix, the lines were two hours long in 2022.
Here is the problem w/ what happened in Maricopa County on Election Day. This is Anthem, north of Phoenix at about 1:15 pm. Ruby red district of about 30K people. Only one polling location. Ballot tabulators not working in the morning. 2 hr wait to vote midday and still at 6 pm. https://t.co/CY35yQWwq5
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 14, 2022
Both Hamadeh and GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake lost their court cases against Maricopa County to have the 2022 elections either overturned or redone.
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s view that it was only “sheer speculation” that issues on election day discouraged “a substantial number of predominantly Lake voters” from casting ballots. The Arizona Supreme Court followed suit, denying Lake’s petition.
Lake shared Trump’s view about the Runbeck error in sending out ballots early this election cycle.
She posted Monday on X, “On Runbeck Election Services ‘mistakenly’ sending out thousands of ballots too early—President Trump says this was ‘no error,’ and he calls Maricopa County ‘very dishonest.’ He is 100% correct.”
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