After participating in Georgia’s exhaustive 2020 recounts — including a hand audit of five million ballots across 159 counties — the author affirms that Joe Biden won by nearly 12,000 votes. The recent FBI seizure of hundreds of boxes and election materials from Fulton County is unlikely to reveal any hidden fraud, but it threatens the long-standing state custody of ballots and could set a dangerous precedent. The author urges state officials, judges and members of Congress to defend state-run election processes to protect future midterms.
Fulton County FBI Raid: Why Seizing 2020 Election Materials Threatens Future U.S. Elections
I watched the Georgia 2020 recount. Here’s what the FBI raid in Fulton County is really about.
When the media called the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden, I was on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, serving as counsel to the Biden campaign to protect the will of Georgia voters as the state’s ballot-counting processes continued. For most Americans the outcome seemed settled; for those of us on the ground, the meticulous work of verifying every vote had only begun.
There is no doubt: Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020 by nearly 12,000 votes.
How Georgia Verified the Vote
Because the margin was close under Georgia law, officials performed a risk-limiting audit — a full hand recount of all five million ballots cast. Lawyers for both campaigns observed as each of Georgia’s 159 counties first counted ballots, certified results and then completed the required hand recount. After those steps, the Trump campaign demanded a third statewide count by machine.
Election workers across Georgia carried out that additional count, often working through the night in shifts while confronting threats of violence and the challenges of a global pandemic. After three independent counts, the outcome did not change: Biden’s lead held at nearly 12,000 votes. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Republican Governor Brian Kemp certified the results, and courts rejected every legal effort to overturn them.
The FBI Action and Why It Matters
More than five years later, federal agents entered the Fulton County election operations center and removed hundreds of boxes of ballots, tabulator tapes, ballot images and other documents connected to the 2020 vote. That seizure has raised alarm not because five-year-old records are likely to reveal a hidden "smoking gun" validating long-debunked conspiracy theories — they are not — but because of the precedent it sets.
The federal removal of ballots and equipment from state custody challenges a foundational principle of American elections: ballots should be cast, maintained and counted under impartial, statutorily defined state processes without interference from candidates on the ballot. When federal law enforcement takes physical control of state election materials, it risks upending chain-of-custody norms and creating chilling effects for election officials and voters alike.
What This Could Mean For 2026
Consider the trajectory: a president directing federal agencies to seize ballots and voting equipment, bringing prosecutions of election workers, or using federal power to intimidate voters and local officials. If left unchecked, such actions could make state-run, impartial elections vulnerable to partisan federal intervention — particularly ahead of high-stakes contests such as the 2026 midterms.
Public officials cannot wait. Governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general and local election administrators must defend the constitutional role of states in administering elections. Judges should carefully scrutinize any federal intrusions. Members of Congress, sworn to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, must also act to safeguard the integrity of the process.
“It’s meant to sow fear,” Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory said after the FBI search. “People who normally would stand up to exercise their free and fair right to vote get afraid to do that. And that’s exactly what [Trump] hopes will happen.”
She is right. The preservation of impartial, transparent state election processes is essential to democratic legitimacy. Removing ballots from state custody without clear, narrowly tailored justification threatens that legitimacy and sets a dangerous precedent. We must not allow fear or partisan power plays to erode the processes that ensure every ballot counts.
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