A 19-year-old Arizona State University student is set to take over as Maricopa County Clerk of the Superior Court after his Republican opponent called to concede. Jeff Dial conceded the race to Democrat Sebastian Matta, who held a lead in unofficial results heading into the call. Matta says he plans to keep attending classes while running an office that oversees court records for one of the largest counties in the country.
Dial's concession came after results posted on the Maricopa County election website showed Matta ahead 53.4% to 46.6% as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to ABC15. Separate reporting from KTAR put Wednesday evening's tally at 689,669 votes for Matta and 602,745 for Dial out of 1,360,007 ballots cast, while a Maricopa County election summary excerpt listed different figures of 666,992 votes for Matta and 582,084 for Dial at the same 53.40% to 46.60% split. The discrepancies reflect different reporting snapshots rather than a final certified count, and no source in this reporting confirms when certification occurred.
A Campaign That Started With 4,063 Signatures
Matta turned 19 on July 21, the same day he won the uncontested Democratic primary, per the Arizona Capitol Times. He grew up in Phoenix and graduated from Thunderbird High School in 2025. He began considering a run for office in August 2025 after identifying issues he wanted to resolve, according to the same outlet's reporting.
The clerk's office has a staff of close to 700 people, per KJZZ. Maricopa County clerks serve four-year terms and earn $96,600 a year, the station reports. Both candidates in the race said they wanted to expand online filing of court documents and make court resources available in more languages, KJZZ noted.
Scrutiny Over Late Campaign Finance Filings
Matta's run wasn't without stumbles. Dial and others criticized him during the campaign for filing campaign finance reports late, and the station's report specifies that Matta filed his first-quarter report a week late and his second-quarter report five days late. Matta has said his priorities as clerk include expanding e-filing to probate cases and expanding foreign-language access in the court system, the same outlet reports.
He told ABC15 he expects the early stretch of his tenure to focus on winning over the office's staff. “The first long while of my tenure will be getting to be friendly with the staff, ensuring them that their jobs are safe,” Matta said, per the station's account. He is a student at Arizona State University and plans to continue earning his degree while also serving as clerk, according to the same report.
An Office That Changed Hands Twice Before the Vote
The seat Matta is set to fill has seen turnover even before this election. Jeff Fine served as the last elected Maricopa County clerk, holding the office from 2019 to 2025, according to the Fresno Bee. After Fine stepped down, Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed Joseph Malka to the role, but Malka stepped down from the clerk's role just shy of a year later, KJZZ reported.
Jeff Dial, for his part, thanked his campaign volunteers and county election workers after conceding, confirming he had called Matta earlier Wednesday to acknowledge the race was over. A previous close race for the same office came in 2018, when Republican Jeff Fine defeated Democrat Roberta Neil Miller, according to a Maricopa County election summary from that year.
Low Youth Turnout Nationally, One Exception Locally
Matta's win comes against a backdrop of tepid youth political engagement nationally. A Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics poll found that just 12% of people ages 18 to 29 were motivated and ready to participate in the 2026 midterm elections, the Arizona Capitol Times reported. Under Arizona law, candidates for county office must be at least 18 at the time of election or appointment, along with meeting residency and elector requirements, according to Arizona Revised Statutes § 11-402.
The Maricopa County Clerk of the Superior Court's listed responsibilities include providing public access to Superior Court records, keeping a docket, attending court sessions to record court actions, and receiving, distributing, and preserving official court documents, per the county's own services page. It's a sprawling administrative role for someone who, by his own account to KTAR, decided just over a year ago that he wanted to fix problems he saw in how the office ran.
