How Year-Plus Standoff for Election Data Culminated in FBI’s Raid in Georgia
Fred Lucas /
The FBI raid of the election office in Georgia’s largest county may have surprised many Americans. But it was building for more than a year.
It began as a state-county standoff regarding 2020 election data and escalated last fall to include the U.S. Justice Department.
Here are three keys to understanding what led to the FBI raid.
1. What’s Unusual About the 2020 Ballots in Fulton?
In January, the Election Oversight Group, a Georgia organization, issued a 236-page report about the 2020 ballot count in Fulton County.
This week, the report gained national attention when the Election Integrity Network released a three-page summary in the context of the FBI raid.
The Election Oversight report says 148,319 absentee ballots were counted for the 2020 General Election from Fulton County. However, just 125,784 voters were recorded as casting an absentee ballot. That would mean the county counted 22,000 more ballots than people who were recorded to have voted.
A staffer with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office responded that its data doesn’t back up the assertion about 125,784 voters recorded.
The Election Oversight report also notes that 74,000 absentee ballots were reportedly cast when polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020. Four days later, 148,000 absentee ballots were announced. The report says that only 16,032 ballot images have their corresponding unique “fingerprint” authentication file, while another 132,286 ballot image authentications files were deleted.
“The information in this report documents in one place, in a comprehensive manner and exacting detail, the complete mess of an election that took place in Georgia in November 2020,” Cleta Mitchell, chairwoman of the Election Integrity Network, told The Daily Signal.
“While Fulton County is ground zero for essentially ignoring as many legal requirements as they possibly could, Fulton County is hardly alone in its election malfeasance,” Mitchell added.
Raffensperger’s office declined to comment on the FBI raid until more details are available. Previously, his office addressed similar issues.
For instance, ballot images aren’t counted as votes, but are electronic pictures of ballots made during vote tabulation, officials from Raffensperger’s office said at a May 2024 State Election Board meeting.
Separately, Raffensperger’s office concluded allegations against county election officials of fraudulent counting and counterfeit ballots were false, in a March 2023 report. His office was assisted by the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
Georgia ranks fifth nationally in The Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard.
2. What Was the State Investigating?
The State Election Board issued its first subpoena in November 2024, alleging the documents were missing for thousands of votes in the recount of the 2020 presidential election. The letter to Fulton County noted “unexplained anomalies in vote tabulation and storage related to the 2020 election.”
“Our subpoenas are still open. The board’s official stance was to take custody of those documents,” Janice Johnston, vice chairwoman of the State Elections Board, told The Daily Signal.
In October 2025, the state board issued a second subpoena requesting all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 election in the county.
At a Dec. 9 state board meeting, a Fulton County official admitted more than 130 tabulator tapes—which are receipt-like pieces of paper with vote tabulation information—that documented about 315,000 early in-person 2020 votes weren’t signed by election workers as required under state law.
The Daily Signal reached out to Fulton County Elections Director Nadine Williams and Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections Chairwoman Sherri Allen for this story. Neither responded by publication time.
3. How Did It Become a Federal Matter?
In July, the state board passed a resolution to request assistance from the U.S. Justice Department “to effect compliance with voting transparency” from Fulton County.
On Oct. 30, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections demanding “all records in your possession responsive to the recent subpoena issued to your office by the State Election Board.”
In November, the Fulton County board responded, “The physical ballots, stubs, and absentee ballot envelopes for the 2020 general election remain in the Fulton County Superior Court Clerk’s possession and under seal” in accordance with state law.
In December, the Justice Department filed a civil rights complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Days later, Georgia Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney cleared the way for the state board to obtain documents related to the 2020 election.
On Jan. 28, the FBI—acting on a court-authorized search warrant—removed material from the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, Georgia, near Atlanta.
On Feb. 4, Fulton County filed a motion in federal court seeking the return of all the material removed by the FBI, including copies. The motion asks the court to temporarily enjoin the federal government from using the information.
“Last week I asked the county attorney to take any and all steps available to fight this criminal search warrant,” Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington said in a statement. “Actions like this mass seizure risk sowing seeds of distrust in the election process.”