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Navajo County Recorder Tim Jordan was done fighting.
He’d served as one of the county’s top election officials for a year — and spent most of that time wrapped up in a legal fight after being indicted on criminal charges connected to a road rage incident. That included one count of disorderly conduct with a weapon, a felony charge that threatened to disqualify him from holding office.
As 2026 dawned, he seemed ready to move on. He agreed to a plea deal on Dec. 30 and, about a month later, announced that he planned to resign on April 15, opening up a key election-administration job in the politically divided county.
“I feel my decision is within the best interest of all,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “I choose to leave quietly as possible to avoid further media and social distractions.” He signed off his letter with “much love.”
Jordan’s announcement — which came after a “sit-down conversation” and “verbal agreement” with county leaders, per his letter — brought a quiet end to a highly publicized saga that drew media attention to the northeastern Arizona county.
Now, county supervisors must find someone to pick up the pieces and run the recorder’s office during the heated and fast-approaching 2026 election cycle. Whomever they appoint will serve out the rest of Jordan’s term, which lasts through 2028 — meaning the new recorder will also help oversee voting in the next presidential election.
The county’s board of supervisors is divided 3-to-2, with Democrats in the majority. But any appointee they pick must be a Republican. When there is a vacancy in an elected office, state law dictates that it be filled by an appointee of the same political party as its most recent occupant.
But it’s unclear whether the person supervisors pick will hold the same views as Jordan, who promoted false claims of rampant voter fraud while running for his seat. On the campaign trail, he said past elections had been rigged and claimed without proof that there were dead voters and noncitizens on the county’s voter rolls.
Board Chair Daryl Seymore, a Republican, said he wants the county’s voter lists to be accurate, but suggested he was more concerned about the board’s appointee following routine processes to remove deceased people from the rolls than noncitizens.
“That’s the cleanup part that needs to be done, and done thoroughly,” he said, adding that he wanted someone who could “do the job that’s required.”
“That’s something that we want to see always happen, regardless of what party. That’s the role of the recorder’s office.”
Ultimately, supervisors said they want to find someone with a healthy respect for the job and the county’s voters. Seymore said he wants a candidate who will approach the role with “seriousness”and who also can handle the non-voting side of the job, which includes recording official documents like contracts and deeds. Vice Chair Dawnafe Whitesinger, a Democrat, said she’s looking for a new recorder with “a public servant’s heart.”
But finding someone qualified might be difficult in the remote county. Other rural areas have struggled to locate qualified applicants for high-level positions involving elections, particularly when their previous occupants have come under close scrutiny.
Even if someone already in the office steps up, it could create a cascading chain of vacancies that experts say pose challenges for counties with fewer resources.
“These smaller counties are often run with a small workforce,” said Bill Gates, executive director of Arizona State University’s Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory and a former GOP supervisor in Maricopa County. “You don’t have the capability to have a deep bench.”
Candidates have until March 6 to apply for the job. Navajo County Manager Bryan Layton said the county has received nine applications so far — including one from Jose Lerma, a voter registration coordinator in the recorder’s office whom Jordan recommended as his replacement.
Lerma has worked for several years in the office’s voter registration department. Prior to that, he worked for the county as a child support enforcement officer. He said he previously was not affiliated with any specific political party, but recently registered as a Republican so that he could apply for the recorder’s seat.
“I believe that I could bring a lot to the table, if they just allow me the opportunity,” he said.
Lerma said maintaining clean voter rolls is important and that the recorder’s office currently does “a great job” of ensuring that only eligible voters are able to cast ballots. He said elections have been “clean and fair” in the county — although he expressed less certainty about elections in other areas of the state.
“I want to believe that,” he said of whether election results were accurate statewide, adding that he “can’t speak for other counties.”
Seymore said Jordan’s recommendation wouldn’t have any bearing on his evaluation of the candidates. He said he was looking for the most qualified applicant.
“We have the time to vet people, and to do it in a process where the entire board of supervisors will be involved,” he said. “I think that’s the best thing that we could do.”
Sasha Hupka is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Sasha at shupka@votebeat.org.
