Arizona Secretary of State releases delayed federal felony records after public dispute

Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has now supplied county recorders with federal felony-conviction records spanning 2023 through the second quarter of 2026, after Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap publicly challenged the office’s earlier explanations for the delay. The files arrived Monday night, but reports for the third and fourth quarters of 2025 remain absent, with Fontes promising to upload them by the end of the week.

Heap said he had spoken directly with Justice Department officials, who confirmed continuous provision of the reports to Fontes’ office over the past four years, contradicting the Secretary’s claim that the DOJ was at fault. Republican Party Chairman Sergio Arellano seized on the controversy, accusing Fontes of deceit and urging voters to support Alex Kolodin. The sudden delivery leaves county officials with a compressed timeline to examine the new data and determine whether any voter registrations should be cancelled ahead of early-mail ballot distribution, and Heap is demanding the remaining quarterly reports be provided immediately.