Senate President Karen Fann announced the decision in a letter Friday, after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) expressed concerns two days earlier that canvassing door to door could violate federal laws aimed at preventing voter intimidation.
The DOJ's concern came after the Arizona Senate and Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based firm it hired to manage the county's audit, said it planned to"identify voter registrations that did not make sense, and then knock on doors to confirm if valid voters actually lived at the state address." The auditors also said they planned to ask voters about their voting history to determine"whether the individual voted in the [November] election," according to NPR.
"Such investigative efforts can have a significant intimidating effect on qualified voters that can deter them from seeking to vote in the future," wrote Pamela S. Karlan, principal deputy assistant attorney general in the department's Civil Rights Division. However, the letter noted that the Senate could eventually initiate door-to-door canvassing later on in the audit process, but said voters and precincts would not be chosen based on race, ethnicity, sex, party affiliation or any other legally protected status, theFann also said if that were to happen, canvassers would not ask voters which candidate they supported, and would ensure that contacted voters would not be forced to respond to inquiries.
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