The Justice Department is asking Fulton County officials to hand over election records from the 2020 presidential race, but county leaders say they have no plans to comply.
DOJ probes 2020 election in Fulton County
The request from the DOJ arrived as early voting was underway for municipal and statewide contests. Federal officials are seeking ballot images, records, and other documentation tied to the 2020 race.
Multiple investigations have already found no evidence of widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 results. Still, the DOJ’s letter mirrors a similar push by the Georgia State Elections Board, whose majority opened its own probe last year.
Fulton County Chairman Rob Pitts on DOJ letter
Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts says the timing feels misplaced, coming just days after another smooth election in Georgia. “I’m just still baffled as to why this fixation on the 2020 elections,” Pitts said. “The 2020 elections are over and done with. They’ve been reviewed, they’ve been audited, they’ve been scrutinized. They’ve been looked at from top to bottom. We had a clean bill of health.”
Pitts says the county is “tired of relitigating” the past. “We had successful elections in 2024. We just recently, two days ago, had another successful election,” he said. “But they just cannot, for whatever reason, let 2020 go.”
Fulton County has challenged that state subpoena in court and says it has already followed the law. “From our point of view, we’ve complied with everything that we’re required to comply with under the law,” Pitts said. “So, from my point of view, there is no next step.”
Civil Rights Division letter to Fulton County
The letter sent to Fulton County was signed by Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. It was addressed to the Fulton County Board of Registrants and Elections as a whole and to its individual members.
The letter reads:
We write to you as the governing body charged with running elections in Fulton County, Georgia, and maintaining records of those elections in accordance with state and federal election laws. On behalf of the Attorney General of the United States, we request that you present for inspection in its entirety and most original form, all records in your possession responsive to the recent subpoena issued to your office by the State Election Board.
The Civil Rights Division sends this request consistent with its ongoing obligations to ensure all citizens’ voting rights have been and are protected in all elections. Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (“CRA”) empowers the Attorney General to request preserved election records. See 52 U.S.C. § 20701, et seq. Section 303 of the CRA provides, in pertinent part, “Any record or paper required by section 20701 of this title to be retained and preserved shall, upon demand in writing by the Attorney General or his representative directed to the person having custody, possession, or control of such record or paper, be made available for inspection, reproduction, and copying at the principal office of such custodian by the Attorney General or his representative[.]” 52 U.S.C. § 20703.
The purpose of this request is to ascertain Georgia’s compliance with various provisions of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act including, without limitation, compliance with provisions relating to election technology and administration standards. 52 U.S.C. §§ 20501–20511, 20901–21145. Courts have examined requests such as these and have concluded that, in the context of voter registration lists, such requests “fit comfortably within this legal framework” of federal oversight. See, e.g., Order, Crook v. S.C. Election Comm.
The State Election Board of your state agreed when, in a July 30, 2025 resolution, it called upon the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice if necessary for state officials to effect compliance with voting transparency.
Transparency appears to have been frustrated at multiple turns in Georgia. The State Election Board has cited “unexplained anomalies in vote tabulation and storage related to the 2020 election” in a letter to you dated November 7, 2024. The Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division has also been made aware, in correspondence dated August 1, 2025, from voter transparency advocates, of multiple instances of government obstruction of transparency requests, including high-resolution ballot scans, signature verification documentation, and various metadata requests.
The Civil Rights Division appreciates your prompt attention to this matter within 15 days of today. Compliance with this request includes notifying all individuals or organizations that have access to these responsive records, even if not directly affiliated with your office.
Fulton County and the 2020 election
Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous county and home to most of Atlanta, was central to allegations following the 2020 presidential election that fraudulent ballots or other irregularities had changed the outcome in the state.
The controversy erupted after video from Atlanta’s State Farm Arena appeared to show election workers pulling ballot containers from under tables after poll watchers had left. Supporters of Donald Trump and his legal team argued the footage showed illegal ballot counting and double scanning. The workers in the video were later identified as Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
However, investigators with the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI reviewed the unedited footage and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Officials said the workers followed standard procedure, storing sealed ballots during a pause in counting and resuming once given clearance. “There was, in fact, no crime,” a spokesperson for the Fulton County elections board told the Associated Press.
Multiple investigations, including one by state officials, determined investigators “haven’t found any evidence to substantiate claims that fraudulent or counterfeit ballots were counted” in the county during the 2020 general election. Fact-checks by AP also found that discrepancies in tally sheets were due to human error and did not change the results.
Freeman and Moss later became the targets of harassment and false claims online. They testified before Congress and sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation, a case in which Giuliani was found liable. Freeman and Moss were formally cleared by the Georgia State Election Board in 2023, which reaffirmed that all ballots had been handled and counted properly.
Even so, the county remained under state scrutiny. In July 2024, the Georgia State Election Board approved a plan for independent monitoring of future elections in Fulton County, citing long lines, reporting delays, and the lingering distrust that followed the 2020 vote. By August 2025, the board suspended fines related to those oversight issues but continued to say the county bore responsibility for prior election-management problems.
Despite the audits, recounts, and multiple investigations that confirmed the results were accurate, the video and surrounding claims continue to resurface in legal and political debates. The dispute remains one of the most polarizing episodes in Georgia’s modern election history.
Why the DOJ letter now?
It remains unclear why the federal request from the United States Department of Justice for election records now revives scrutiny of the 2020 election in Fulton County despite previous reviews.
The DOJ letter does not specify what new evidence, if any, triggered the demand. It also is not publicly known how this latest demand differs from prior state-level investigations that found no evidence of fraud or widespread irregularities.
It is unknown whether county officials will legally challenge the DOJ request as they have done with state subpoenas.
Additionally, the scope of what the DOJ plans to do with the records, how far the probe will go and whether it will intersect with the ongoing legal dispute involving the Georgia State Elections Board remain uncertain.
While federal officials pursue their inquiry, the county’s ongoing legal fight with the state elections board continues to move through the courts.
