(The Center Square) – Fulton County will file a federal lawsuit challenging the seizure of its 2020 election ballots, one commissioner said.
Marvin Arrington Jr. said he has asked the county attorney to file a motion in federal court.
“The search warrant, I believe, is not proper, but I think that there are ways that we can limit it,” Arrington said in a newsletter shared on social media. “We want to ask for forensic accounting, we want the documents to stay in the state of Georgia under seal, and we want to do whatever we can to protect voter information.”
The FBI searched the Fulton County election headquarters last week to obtain voting records related to the 2020 election, walking away with about 700 boxes.
Arrington, an attorney, said he does not know what was gathered by the FBI.
“Now we cannot verify that we’ve received everything back because there was no chain-of-custody inventory taken at the time the records were seized,” Arrington said.
The U.S. Department of Justice has two election lawsuits pending in Georgia. Fulton County is the target of one.
The raid happened before the lawsuit was settled. Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said Thursday that the records would likely have been turned over in a few weeks.
The Justice Department is also suing the state for access to its voter rolls. The Georgia Senate passed a resolution on Monday urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over the information.
The rolls include sensitive information that cannot be released per Georgia law, according to Raffensperger. He said in a release that it is time to move forward.
“The path forward is through national reform, not repetition of old arguments that don’t add up,” Raffensperger said. “I urge lawmakers to focus on strengthening state administration of elections rather than rehashing the same outdated claims or worse – moving to federalize a core function of state government.”
Raffensperger, candidate for governor, says Congress should require REAL ID when voting. REAL ID is required by the Transportation Security Administration for airline passengers. A U.S. birth certificate, U.S. passport, or permanent resident card is required for a REAL ID.
