PHOENIX — A vendor’s mail-timing mistake in Maricopa County became a national talking point Monday when President Donald Trump weighed in.
Asked by a reporter at a Monday news conference about the early ballots, Trump dismissed the idea that it was an accident, KTAR News 92.3 FM reported. “There were no errors,” he said. “Maricopa sent out thousands of ballots illegally, and they got caught! And now they’re saying it was an error. Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”
What happened
Thee Arizona Times reported Monday morning on the mix-up. Runbeck Election Services, which prints and mails the county’s early ballots, notified the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office on Oct. 2 that it had mailed 3,126 ballots the day before. They were not supposed to go out until Oct. 7.
According to KTAR, Runbeck said the ballots had been handled separately because they did not qualify for automated postal processing, and a pallet holding them was mistakenly released with other outgoing mail on the evening of Oct. 1. The company said the problem was about when staged mail was handed to the Postal Service, not about how the ballot packets were produced, and that it has added verification steps.
The county’s position
The Recorder’s Office said it never authorized the early mailing and learned about it afterward. It said every ballot went to the correct voter, all of whom had requested one. After consulting the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the recorder decided the ballots do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters who received one can fill it out and return it normally, and any ballots that arrive before early voting begins will stay sealed in secure storage until processing starts, the office said.
County Recorder Justin Heap, a Republican, referred KTAR to Runbeck’s statement when asked about Trump’s remarks Monday. The Recorder’s Office has said Runbeck accepted responsibility and will work with the county to prevent a repeat.
A long-running feud
Trump has repeatedly attacked election administration in Maricopa County since narrowly losing the county and Arizona to Joe Biden in 2020. Monday’s comments land as the 2026 general election ramps up: Monday was also the last day for Arizonans to register to vote in the Nov. 3 election, and county early ballots are scheduled to go out to the bulk of voters this week.
Voters can track their own ballot and check registration status through the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office at recorder.maricopa.gov.
Photo: Daniel Torok, The White House (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). Official presidential portrait, 2025.