FBI raids Fulton County election office in 2020 election fraud probe

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch and Johnny Edwards
The Center Square

The FBI on Wednesday executed a search warrant on the Fulton County, Ga., election headquarters to obtain voting records related to the 2020 election.

According to Democratic Georgia state Sen. Josh McLaurin, who is running for lieutenant governor and is at the scene, the FBI is interested in about 700 boxes of ballots from the 2020 election. He told The Center Square he got the information from speaking to Fulton County elections office personnel.

Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory said the feds removed pallets of boxes Wednesday. At the back of the warehouse, agents could be seen loading boxes into rental trucks backed up to loading docks.

The FBI’s warrants, issued to county Superior and Magistrate Courts Clerk Che Alexander, were for all 2020 ballots including absentees, Ivory said. They also covered 2020 voter rolls.

The commissioner said the county has a team of lawyers looking for ways to fight back.

“All of us are trying to come together to figure out what to do next,” Ivory said. “We’re under assault. I think you know that.”

Fulton County Republican Party Chair Julie Adams disagreed.

“The DOJ wrote to Fulton County in August of last year, asking for the ballots. DOJ wrote another letter in October asking again for the 2020 ballots and other records. Two weeks ago, the FBI delivered a third letter,” Adams said in a statement posted to X. “But the majority of the Fulton County Board of Elections literally denied these requests. The Georgia State Election Board has been trying for 4 years to get the records. Including issuing a subpoena for the ballots and other records. And ALL of those efforts have failed. Until today.”

Outside access to the 2020 ballots has been at the center of several ongoing legal disputes. The State Election Board has subpoenaed them. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued twice seeking ballots and voter information.

McLaurin said agents came from the main FBI office, not the local FBI office in Atlanta.

He blamed the raid on what he called President Donald Trump’s “conspiracy theories.” McLaurin said Trump is trying to “vindicate his agenda” and distract from recent violence in Minneapolis.

Garland Favorito, who leads the nonprofit VoterGA, has been in litigation for five years attempting to gain access to Fulton County’s 2020 ballots through several lawsuits. He arrived at the scene of the raid in a celebratory mood.

“I think it’s maybe our last hope at getting to see the ballots,” Favorito told The Center Square. “Because both Fulton County elections and the Fulton County judicial system have prevented us from having a transparent election. Hopefully, this will be able to answer the questions that have been lingering for five years over that election.”

The county has been under scrutiny by Republicans and the Trump administration amid allegations of election fraud stemming from the 2020 presidential election.

At a December 2025 meeting of the Georgia State Election Board, it was revealed that poll workers did not properly sign tabulation tapes of more than 300,000 votes that were counted in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans called for a federal investigation.

It’s unclear if the Wednesday raid is tied to the unsigned tabulation tapes.

This is a developing story.