Fulton County Appeals for Return of 2020 Election Ballots Seized by FBI

Wed Feb 18 2026 10:23:47 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Fulton County, Georgia, has filed a federal motion requesting the return of ballots and documents seized by the FBI, citing concerns over election integrity and transparency.

Fulton County has initiated legal action to seek the return of ballots and related documents taken by the FBI in a recent search. The county's chairman emphasized the need for transparency amid claims of election irregularities. The move comes as tensions rise over election integrity and the role of federal agencies in local electoral matters.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Fulton County has turned to federal court to reclaim all ballots and related documents from the 2020 election seized by the FBI in a recent search operation near Atlanta.

County Chairman Robb Pitts announced on Wednesday that the motion includes a request for the unsealing of a sworn statement from a law enforcement agent that justified the search warrant. The specific details of the filing remain confidential as the case currently is sealed.

The search, executed on January 28 at the county’s main election facility in Union City, aimed to gather records pertaining to the contentious 2020 election, during which President Donald Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. Many Democrats have raised concerns about what they perceive as the politicization of the FBI and Justice Department in targeting Trump’s political adversaries.

“The president and his allies refuse to accept the outcome of the election,” Pitts stated, asserting that even if Trump had won Georgia, it would not have changed the overall result of the presidency.

The focus on Fulton County, which is the most populous in Georgia and heavily Democratic, has been a point of fixation for Trump and his supporters, who have long claimed, without substantiated evidence, that widespread voter fraud in the county led to his defeat.

Pitts defended the integrity of the county's electoral process, emphasizing that Fulton has successfully conducted 17 elections since 2020 without any significant issues. “This case extends beyond Fulton County; it’s emblematic of electoral challenges across Georgia and nationwide,” he remarked.

Among the items listed in the warrant was a demand for all ballots, tabulator tapes from vote scanners, electronic ballot images from the counting and recounting processes, and all voter rolls.

Following the search, the FBI allegedly left with hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other election-related documents. County officials expressed frustration over not being informed about the rationale behind the federal request.

This situation has aroused additional scrutiny, specifically around the presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, at the site of the FBI search, which some Democrats have criticized as improper due to the law enforcement nature of the operation. Gabbard defended her attendance, stating it was under her authority to oversee intelligence related to election security.