Fulton County election officials are seeking to block a federal subpoena seeking personal data on thousands of 2020 poll workers, escalating a legal clash with the Justice Department over the scope of its election-related investigation into the Georgia county.
In a motion filed Monday in federal court, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections asked a court to quash an April DOJ subpoena filed that requests names, addresses, and phone numbers of election workers who participated in the 2020 vote. County officials said the demand is overly broad and risks exposing private individuals to potential harassment, while also intruding on Georgia’s authority to administer its own elections.
“The subpoena threatens the First Amendment rights of election workers and will chill their participation in elections,” Fulton County said in its filing, adding that the subpoena represents an “unreasonable” federal intrusion into state-run election processes.
The dispute stems from a broader investigation led by the DOJ and FBI into what federal officials have described as irregularities in how Fulton County conducted the 2020 election. That inquiry has been a focal point for President Donald Trump and his administration, which has continued to scrutinize the handling of the race in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost that year.
As part of the investigation, federal agents executed a search warrant in January at a Fulton County elections facility, seizing ballots and related materials. Newly disclosed court filings show the investigation has accelerated. According to a DOJ timeline posted to the docket on May 1, a referral was made on Jan. 5, and within 23 days, agents had secured and executed a search warrant on the facility.
Federal officials have defended their use of the criminal process to obtain records, arguing in court that it imposes a higher legal standard than civil requests and reflects the seriousness of the inquiry. They have also pushed back on claims that the investigation is a workaround to obtain materials more quickly, calling that theory unfounded.
Fulton County officials, however, have pointed to the rapid timeline as evidence that the government prioritized the matter unusually quickly.
In its separate course of litigation seeking the return of seized election-related materials, county attorneys have argued the investigation appears designed to obtain records that had previously been contested in civil court between the Georgia Board of Elections and the county, which is chaired by a Republican majority, among other local-level lawsuits.
The latest subpoena fight adds another layer to that ongoing litigation. In their motion, county lawyers questioned whether the request was even tied to a grand jury, noting that the records were directed to a prosecutor in the office of Dan Bishop, who has been tasked with overseeing election-related investigations nationwide.
“[T]here is no indication … that the grand jury is even aware of this investigation,” the filing states, raising concerns about how the subpoena power is being used. The county further claims the subpoena for election worker data “does not suggest that the grand jury is conducting an investigation of its own,” but rather that the “DOJ is simply conducting its own investigation.”
Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts described the subpoena as “outrageous federal overreach.”
The DOJ has not publicly commented on the latest Fulton County motion.
The clash comes as federal authorities work to obtain election-related data in another state that was the target of 2020 election criticism, Arizona’s Maricopa County, as well as to access voter rolls and other records.
So far, the DOJ’s most difficult election-related initiative has been its efforts to obtain voter data. After suing 29 states to obtain it, the DOJ has lost five of its initial district court battles thus far in that nationwide effort.
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Due to long-standing guardrails that keep state and federal election management separate, the Trump administration will likely need review by a higher court to determine the bounds of federal intervention in circumstances where states may lack up-to-date voter rolls.
A federal judge in Georgia is expected to weigh the DOJ and Fulton County’s competing claims as litigation over both the subpoena and the earlier ballot seizure continues.
