Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, attempted to dismiss a subpoena from the Georgia State Board of Elections, claiming that delivering “approximately 750 boxes” of materials would be excessively burdensome. However, during an FBI raid on January 28, federal agents left with 656 boxes (or 653, according to one count), prompting a senior Georgia election official to question the discrepancy.
“That’s almost 100 boxes of evidence,” Janice Johnston, vice chair of the Georgia State Election Board, told The Daily Signal. She went on to reference one county affidavit that only estimated “over 700 boxes” at the county elections hub the FBI raided in December. She said, “Even 50 [extra] boxes would be a lot of evidence.”
A rough estimate cannot justify such a significant discrepancy in numbers found in an affidavit or court filings, Johnston stated. The State Election Board has since submitted a records request to the Fulton County Board of Elections, seeking information on materials delivered or removed from storage in the four weeks leading up to the FBI raid.
“Fulton County is effectively the person of interest in this case,” Johnston said. “We are not assured that everything was available.”
The FBI has taken possession of materials related to the 2020 election, which included ballots, tabulator tapes, and images from a recount, as reported by Georgia Public Broadcasting, referencing court documents that validated the search warrant. Notably, Johnston pointed out that approximately 370,000 ballot images are currently unaccounted for.
“Someone is LYING to the FBI and COURTS!! Ballot Images WERE required to be kept in the 2020 ELECTION in Georgia!!” she wrote in a separate X post.
After the raid, Fulton County sued the Justice Department for the return of the documents. The lawsuit also sought to prevent the FBI from reviewing them. Johnston criticized the lawsuit as being “over the top.”
“They have been fighting the State Elections Board over the same documents,” Johnston told the outlet. The Daily Signal requested comments from Fulton County Board of Elections Chairwoman Sherri Allen and Elections Director Nadine Williams. A spokesperson for Fulton County responded to the inquiry.
“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,” Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt told the outlet in an email.
“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,” Corbitt 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.”
Fulton County submitted a court filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, stating that 656 boxes were taken. “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 complaint filed on Feb. 5 says.
“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.”
The estimate of 656 boxes was lower than the figure cited in a petition seeking to quash a subpoena scheduled for November 2024. That petition claimed that producing records related to the 2020 election would impose an “unreasonable and oppressive substantive burden.”
“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,” wrote Michael Tyler, a lawyer representing the county, in the Nov. 15, 2024, petition. “Petitioners estimate temporary staff of approximately 20 full-time people will need to be retained to review the documents.”