Questions swirl as Democratic board picks an ultraconservative new recorder in Navajo County

Supervisors in Navajo County had narrowed their pool to three finalists by the time they met to appoint a new recorder.

One, Jose Lerma, was a voter registration coordinator in the recorder’s office and familiar with the elections side of the job. Another, Suzanne Hudspeth, was a local realtor — experience that could help with the recorder’s responsibility to manage public records, including property documents and government information.

The final candidate, state Rep. David Marshall, seemed perhaps the least likely choice for the board of supervisors, on which Democrats hold three of five seats. State law required them to pick a member of the same political party as former Recorder Tim Jordan, a Republican who resigned in January. But Marshall was the most ideological of the three finalists. In the Legislature, he was an out-and-proud member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. He had supported legislation to ban vote centers, severely restrict mail voting, require ballots cast in local elections to be counted by hand, and more. And he was in the midst of a contentious primary campaign for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Supervisors conducted their final interviews with the candidates on April 14 in executive session, a type of closed-door meeting that allows policymakers to privately discuss certain sensitive topics. Upon returning to the dais, they scribbled down their votes on small sheets of paper.




https://www.votebeat.org/arizona/2026/04/27/navajo-county-board-supervisors-david-marshall-recorder-election-official-legislature-republican/