The federal government can keep the 2020 election ballots from Georgia’s Fulton county seized by the FBI from a warehouse near Atlanta, a judge ruled Wednesday.
US district judge JP Boulee’s decision came after lawyers for the county had argued that the ballots and other election materials, as well as any electronic copies the justice department has made, should be returned because the seizure was improper and unconstitutional.
The 28 January seizure by the FBI targeted the elections hub in Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and includes most of the city of Atlanta. Fulton county has been at the center of unfounded claims by Donald Trump and his allies that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 election.
The justice department has said it is investigating “irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the county” and identified two laws that might have been violated. One requires election records to be maintained for 22 months, while the other prohibits procuring, casting or tabulating false, fictitious or fraudulent ballots.
Georgia’s votes in the 2020 presidential race were counted three times, including once by hand, and each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
“The seizure in this case was certainly not perfect,” Boulee wrote in his 68-page ruling. But he went on to say that Fulton county did not establish that its rights were callously disregarded “either through the lack of probable cause, omissions in the Affidavit or by the manner of the execution of the seizure”.
The county also failed to show that it needs the documents or will be irreparably harmed if they are not returned, he wrote, noting this is particularly true because the justice department has given the county copies of the documents.
