DOJ files suit to obtain 2020 election records in Fulton County, Georgia
The Justice Department this week sued Fulton County, Georgia, seeking to obtain ballots more than five years old related to the 2020 presidential election that President Donald Trump lost.
The eight-page complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Atlanta names Fulton County Clerk of Courts Che Alexander as a defendant, alleging the clerk violated the Civil Rights Act by failing to produce records related to the 2020 presidential election as requested by state and federal officials.
The suit requests that the court require the records to be produced within five days of a court order.
According to the lawsuit, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections last month refused to comply with an Oct. 6 subpoena from the state election board regarding election records, including used and spoiled ballots, stubs and signature envelopes from the 2020 presidential election, claiming in a Nov. 14 letter that the records were “under seal” in accordance with state law.
The lawsuit says the board failed to respond to an Oct. 30 letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding documents she said were necessary to verify the state’s compliance with federal election laws and respond to the state’s transparency efforts.
Alexander and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday evening.
Alexander previously said in an Oct. 21 letter to the state election board that “the documents sought are under seal and cannot be produced without a court order,” according to the lawsuit.
Trump was indicted on felony charges in Fulton County in August 2023 with 18 other co-defendants as part of efforts to overturn his election defeat.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges that were dropped last month by a prosecutor who took over the case following Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis’ disqualification from prosecuting Trump in the case.
Georgia has long been a sore spot for Trump after a narrow defeat in 2020 that he spent years contesting.
After a hand recount of Georgia’s election results reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state in 2020, Trump, then seeking a second term, also called then-Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and implored him to “find” the votes needed to defeat Biden in the 2020 election. Since then, he has continued to falsely claim he won the state.
Fulton County’s lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, comes as it announced Friday that it has filed federal lawsuits against four states — Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada — alleging that the states violated the Constitution by failing to produce statewide voter registration lists upon request.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement Friday that states “have a legal duty to preserve and protect their electors from vote dilution.”
“At this Department of Justice, we will not allow states to compromise the integrity and efficiency of elections by refusing to follow our federal election laws. If states do not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will,” Dhillon said.
