The FBI recently seized hundreds of ballots from the Atlanta area; we learned this week the seizure was based on debunked claims about the 2020 election.
What happened in Georgia has alarmed many election experts, who worry it could be part of a push by President Donald Trump to open the door to future federal interference in election results. Days after the ballots were taken, Trump said the federal government should “take over the voting” in certain places.
“It’s all being used to create an impression, potentially a justification for a potential federal election interference,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department voting rights attorney and head of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.
Trump hasn’t commented on the investigation, but the FBI said it was doing its routine work in investigating a possible crime.
“If these deficiencies were the result of intentional action, it would be a violation of federal law,” FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans wrote in the bureau’s court request for the search warrant.
Here’s what happened in Georgia and why election officials are watching it so closely.
The FBI is now in possession of hundreds of ballots from Georgia’s 2020 presidential election
The search and seizure happened in late January in Fulton County, which is Georgia’s most populous county — and its most Democratic.
It shocked election experts. “We have never seen the federal government step in and seize voting materials like this, anytime that I can remember,” said Tammy Patrick, a former election official in Arizona now with the nonpartisan Election Center.
This week, a judge made public the affidavitthe government used to convince a judge to okay the seizure. As my Washington Post colleagues detail, the affidavits piece together claims made by election conspiracy theorists who were trying to prove nonexistent election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The affidavit does not offer specific evidence that a crime may have been committed.
It’s worth pointing out that several independent reviews found no evidence for election fraud in Georgia — or anywhere else — that was widespread enough to change the outcome of the election.
“The 2020 election was one of the most transparent, scrutinized events in American history,” Becker said. “We know who won Georgia in 2020 because the paper ballots were counted three times, three different ways.”
No one knows what the FBI is doing with the ballots
The Constitution says states, not the federal government, must conduct elections.
And that means election materials are supposed to stay in state officials’ hands, said Patrick, who oversaw elections in Arizona’s largest county. (“Every once in a while,” she said, “we would get a candidate who can’t believe they lost, and so they’d come in and see the ballots.”)
Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said in a news conference that local officials can “no longer be held responsible” for the seized ballots and other materials the FBI took, such as voter information.
“I don’t know where they are now. I don’t know what they’re doing with them,” he said. “Are they opening the boxes? Are they stuffing other ballots into there? I have no clue.”
Fulton County officials have asked a court to give them the ballots back.
The director of national intelligence was also at the search
Lawmakers and former intelligence officials were stunned to see pictures of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the search, The Post reports. Gabbard oversees the nation’s spy agencies, not elections.
Gabbard said that Trump requested her attendance and that she was there as part of her authority to “analyze intelligence related to election security.”
One debunked election claim from 2020 was that countries such as Venezuela somehow accessed voting machines and tampered with the votes. (This is baseless, and voting machines are safe, multiple election experts told me.) It’s unclear whether Gabbard was present as part of some inquiry into foreign interference; again, previous investigations have found no evidence U.S. adversaries altered ballots.
Other election officials are watching this
The former election officials I spoke to all stressed that local officials like those in Fulton County are focused on making sure people’s votes are accurately counted. Their nonpartisan work has come under enormous stress and scrutiny since the 2020 election — and as Trump continues to question past results, that pressure has only increased.
“Trump constantly says our elections are rigged,” Becker said. “That’s 100 percent false. Our elections are as secure and transparent as they’ve ever been, by every measure. It’s one of the places you can say government works best.”
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