Several people in an Arizona county were recently approached by unknown individuals who asked whether they voted in the 2020 election and, if they did, who they voted for, authorities say.
The people who were approached said the unknown individuals identified themselves as volunteers for the Yavapai County Recorder’s Office. Those approached asked the unknown individuals for identification and names, but the individuals refused to provide either and left.
Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman said that one of the people who called to report such an incident was an elderly woman in a retirement community, while another was a person living elsewhere.
After hearing of what allegedly transpired, the county sheriff’s office sent out an alert letting residents know that the recorder would never send anyone to a residence asking voters for personal information.
“Before it went any further, I wanted to get out there right away and let them know, let our citizens know, that it’s always important to ask for ID when people are knocking on their doors,” Hoffman told The Epoch Times.
Hoffman noted that the warning may cause the unknown individuals to stop what they have been doing.
The county sheriff’s office said law enforcement was concerned that what happened may have been an attempt to obtain personal information for fraudulent purposes. Hoffman had similar thoughts, linking the situation with scams that target the elderly.
“I worry about identity on some of our older citizens here and releasing information,” she said.
Liz Harris, a former Republican congressional candidate, said in a social media video that she had canvassers going around in Arizona.
“These are all straight-laced great canvassers, they don’t do any of what this letter states with the exception of, did you vote and what method did you use? They don’t ever ask who they voted for, who the person being interviewed voted for. And the other big thing is, they never state that they work for a recorder’s office or anything like that,” she said.
Harris told The Epoch Times in an email that her canvassing operation has been active statewide since December 2020.
The warning “that has been released is not our canvassers and I seriously question the validity of the 2 complaints received,” she wrote.
Election auditors in Maricopa County, which abuts Yavapai County, had plans to canvass voters whose ballots were deemed questionable in the audit. But after the Department of Justice said the plan could amount to voter intimidation, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, who ordered the audit, said the plan was on hold indefinitely.
“If and to the extent the Senate subsequently decides that canvassing is necessary to the successful completion of the audit, its vendor will implement detailed requirements to ensure that the canvassing is conducted in a manner that complies fully with the commands of the United States Constitution and federal and state civil rights laws,” Fann said.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Senate Republicans didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
Julie Fisher, the deputy Arizona Senate audit liaison, told The Epoch Times via email that what happened in Yavapai County “is not related to the audit.”
There is no update on the canvassing plan, she said.
