This story was originally published by Public News Service.
By Shanteya Hudson, producer
Public News Service
February 5, 2026
Fulton County filed a motion in federal court Wednesday after an FBI raid at the county’s election hub that removed hundreds of boxes of ballots, images and voter records tied to the 2020 election.
County Commission Chairman Robert Pitts said the motion, filed on behalf of himself and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, seeks the immediate return of all seized election materials and greater transparency around why they were taken. He said county leaders and outside legal experts have been working around the clock, warning the case could have consequences far beyond Fulton County.
“This case is not only about Fulton County, it’s about elections across Georgia and across the nation,” he said. “But Fulton County, make no mistake, in my opinion, we are the poster child here.”
In addition to requesting the return of the materials, the county is also asking a judge to unseal the affidavit used to obtain the FBI search warrant.
Since 2020, Pitts said, Fulton County has conducted 17 successful elections without any issues, but questions remain about where the seized materials are now and how they’re being handled. Those concerns are shared by election security experts who say how ballots are handled matters just as much as how they’re counted.
Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director for Verified Voting, is an expert in post-election audits who observed Georgia’s 2020 verification process in four counties. He said Verified Voting, along with Voting Works, provided technical support during Georgia’s large-scale paper ballot audits that year. Lindeman said what troubles him most about the FBI raid is that chain-of-custody rules required under Georgia law weren’t followed.
“Every time ballots move from one location to another, or from one container to another,” he said, “all of that is documented so that it can be verified, after the fact, that ballots have been handled correctly at every step.”
Lindeman explained that Georgia’s 2020 election results were verified through three separate counts: the original tally, a full hand-count audit, and a recount by rescanning all ballots. County officials have said they still do not know where the seized election materials are or what is being done with them.
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