Fulton County turns to court over ballot raid amid warning of election takeover by feds

ATLANTA (CN) — Fulton County officials announced Wednesday that they have turned to federal court to seek the return of the county’s 2020 ballots and election records seized by the FBI last week.

Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County board of commissioners, said the county filed the motion under seal in Atlanta federal court, and could not share details about the content of the filing.

Pitts said the filing was made to find out what the FBI is doing with the trove of election materials and where they have been taken.

“What are they doing with them? Where are they? We don’t know,” Pitts said during a press conference.

The filing also seeks to unseal an affidavit in support of the search warrant the FBI used to raid the Fulton County elections hub, Pitts said.

On the Monday before the FBI raid, Pitts said he received a phone call warning him that arrests were going to be made in the county, but none have occurred as of yet.

When Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard strangely appeared alongside the FBI, Pitts said he knew the seizure was part of a bigger effort beyond just Fulton County.

He vowed that county officials would be utilizing all available resources to fight against those seeking to take over their elections. He described the legal battle as representing a broader effort to ensure the future of fair and accurate elections in the county and across the nation.

With this year being an important election season for statewide offices, Pitts expressed concerns that the seizure was part of a plan by President Donald Trump to take over state-run elections.

“Since 2020, we’ve had 17 successful elections in Fulton County without any issues,” Pitts said.

He assured the public that the county is continuing its focus on delivering free and fair elections, but that its efforts must not be interrupted by a federal takeover.

Democratic state lawmakers echoed Pitts’ concerns, as well as whether federal investigators could access voters’ confidential information and see how they voted.

“This is a blatant attempt by our federal government not just to intervene, but to take them over,” Representative Saira Draper said during a press conference at the Georgia capitol. “We are here to sound the alarm.”

U.S. Representative Stacey Evans encouraged voters to still turn out and vote and urged them to check their voter registration status to ensure their ability to vote is not compromised.

Officials expressed frustration with Trump’s unwillingness to let go of his efforts to attack Fulton County and blame it for his narrow loss to Joe Biden in the state’s 2020 election. Trump’s arrest there, as the first president ever to face criminal charges for conspiring to overturn his defeat, also fueled his vendetta against the county.

“The facts show clear as day that Trump lost here in Georgia in 2020,” Draper said.

“Anybody who is serious about reviewing the facts knows there was three recounts of the ballots in Georgia, there was an audit of the ballots in Georgia, there were 60 cases filed in the courts challenging the elections in 2020 all of which failed, there was an independent investigation of Fulton County held by a bipartisan committee that absolved Fulton county of any kind of systemic voting fraud,” She added.

Concerns over the ballots seizure escalated Monday after Trump called for nationalizing elections during an interview on a podcast with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who left the bureau early last month.

Under the U.S. Constitution, states alone are authorized to determine the “times, places and manner” of elections.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” Trump said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

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