Fulton County election officials are facing new scrutiny after claiming it would be too burdensome to produce approximately 750 boxes of 2020 election records for a state subpoena, even though the FBI removed only 656 boxes in a subsequent raid.
According to WND, the numerical discrepancy has prompted sharp questions from members of the Georgia State Election Board, who say the countys own filings and sworn statements no longer add up. The clash underscores a broader concern long raised by conservatives: that election transparency is too often resisted by local officials, especially in heavily Democratic jurisdictions, whenever it threatens to expose mismanagement or worse. At the center of the dispute is Fulton Countys insistence that complying with a lawful subpoena from the Georgia State Board of Elections would impose an unreasonable and oppressive substantive burden, even as federal agents were able to enter the countys elections hub and leave with hundreds of boxes in a single day.
The FBI executed a search at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center on Jan. 28, seizing 656 boxes of 2020 election-related materials, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The United States executed the Warrant later that day, seizing and removing approximately 656 boxes containing the original versions of 2020 election-related materials from the Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court, the Feb. 5 court document states.
That figure immediately raised red flags for Janice Johnston, vice chair of the Georgia State Election Board, who had been told repeatedly that the county was storing far more material. Thats almost 100 boxes of evidence, Johnston told The Daily Signal, noting that the county had previously cited approximately 750 boxes in resisting the state subpoena.
Johnston pointed out that even Fulton Countys later, more conservative estimates still suggested a significantly larger volume of records than what the FBI ultimately removed. She referenced one county affidavit that only estimated over 700 boxes at the county elections hub and added, Even 50 [extra] boxes would be a lot of evidence.
The gap led Johnston to take her concerns public, pressing for answers about the missing materials. In a post on X, she asked bluntly, WHERE ARE 100 BOXES OF ELECTION DOCUMENTS?!! WHO HAS THE BOXES?!!
From Johnstons perspective, the countys shifting numbers and vague estimates are not a trivial paperwork issue but a serious problem for election integrity. A rough estimate, she argued, does not excuse such a large numerical disparity in an affidavit or court filings, particularly when those filings are being used to fend off oversight from the State Election Board.
In response, the State Election Board has issued a records request to the Fulton County Board of Elections seeking detailed information about any materials delivered to or removed from storage in the four weeks preceding the FBI raid. Fulton County is effectively the person of interest in this case, Johnston said. We are not assured that everything was available.
Court documents indicate the FBI seized a broad range of 2020 election materials, including ballots, tabulator tapes, and ballot images from a recount. Johnston further noted that about 370,000 ballot images are missing, a figure that only deepens concerns about whether all relevant records were preserved and produced.
Rather than cooperate fully with state-level inquiries, Fulton County chose to go on the offensive against the federal government after the raid. The county filed suit against the U.S. Department of Justice, demanding the return of the seized documents and asking the court to bar the FBI from reviewing them.
Johnston, who has pushed for greater transparency and accountability in Georgias elections, did not mince words about that legal maneuver. She called the lawsuit over the top and emphasized the irony of the countys posture, saying, They have been fighting the State Elections Board over the same documents.
When The Daily Signal requested comment from Fulton County Board of Elections Chairwoman Sherri Allen and Elections Director Nadine Williams, the county instead routed the inquiry through a spokesperson. Fulton County complied fully with the search warrant executed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 28, 2026, seeking records related to the 2020 Election, spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said in an email.
Corbitt insisted that federal agents had full access to the countys 2020 election files during the raid. Agents spent more than 8 hours at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center and had the opportunity to review all files related to the 2020 Election, she continued. Agents were made aware of all 2020 documents and selected the files that they removed from the premises. This is now a matter that is being handled by the courts.
The FBI, for its part, declined to comment on the matter, leaving the public to rely on court filings and statements from state and local officials. That silence has only fueled further speculation among conservatives who already distrust the bureaus handling of politically sensitive cases.
Fulton Countys own legal filings highlight the inconsistency at the heart of the dispute. In its Feb. 5 filing, the county stated that Robert L. Robb Pitts, Chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections respectfully request the return of all original seized materials and an order instructing the Respondent to maintain, but not review, any copies of the seized materials until this matter is resolved.
Yet that 656-box figure is notably smaller than the number Fulton County cited just months earlier when it sought to quash a November 2024 subpoena from the State Election Board. That petition argued that producing the records would be an unreasonable and oppressive substantive burden and claimed, The substantive request in the subpoenas would require a review of all materials retained from the 2020 election, which have been archived in approximately 750 boxes.
The countys attorney went further, asserting that compliance would require a substantial temporary workforce. Petitioners estimate temporary staff of approximately 20 full-time people will need to be retained to review the documents, the Nov. 15, 2024, petition stated, portraying the subpoena as an excessive imposition on county resources.
By early February 2025, however, Elections Director Nadine Williams submitted a sworn affidavit that quietly scaled back both the box count and the staffing estimate. Fulton Countys 2020 election materials are stored in over 700 boxes, each of which must be opened, searched, and sorted systematically to locate the majority of the documents requested in the subpoenas, Williams said in the affidavit.
Williams maintained that the Department of Registration and Elections lacked the manpower to comply without outside help, but her numbers still undercut the earlier claims. The DRE [Department of Registration and Elections] does not have sufficient staff to conduct this search and make copies of the documents requested, she added. I estimate that we would need to hire 15 temporary staff members to work full time (40 hours a week), at approximately $26/hour, for a period of approximately 15 weeks to conduct the searching and copying necessary to comply with the subpoena.
For election-integrity advocates, the unresolved questions are straightforward: why did Fulton County repeatedly cite 700 to 750 boxes when the FBI ultimately removed 656, and what happened to the remaining materials that officials once insisted existed. Until those discrepancies are explained and the missing ballot images accounted for, the countys resistance to state oversight and its rush to block federal review will only reinforce the perception that transparency is being sacrificed to protect a deeply flawed election bureaucracy.
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