Election officials in Fulton County, Georgia, are pushing back hard against a federal subpoena that would force them to hand over the names and personal details of thousands of people who worked the 2020 election. The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections filed a motion Monday asking a federal judge to block the Justice Department’s demand, arguing it is a politically motivated fishing expedition.
The subpoena, served by an FBI agent on April 20, seeks the names, addresses, phone numbers, and other identifying information of permanent election staff and volunteer poll workers. The county’s filing calls the request “grossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need,” and accuses the DOJ of trying to “target, harass, and punish the President’s perceived political opponents.”
In its legal motion, the board warned that complying with the subpoena would have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights and interfere with Georgia’s constitutional authority to run its own elections. The filing also notes that the statute of limitations for any 2020 election-related crimes has already expired, meaning the investigation “cannot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution.”
The subpoena covers 10 categories of workers, including county employees who worked on Election Day and bus drivers who operated mobile voting locations. The board’s filing emphasizes that election workers already fear for their physical safety in the current political climate, making the disclosure of their identities particularly dangerous.
The Justice Department has not commented on the motion. The standoff is the latest in a long-running battle between Fulton County and federal authorities over the 2020 election. Trump allies, including former attorney Rudy Giuliani, have repeatedly targeted election staff like Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss with baseless accusations of ballot mishandling, leading to a wave of threats.
In December, the DOJ filed a complaint demanding all used and void ballots, ballot stubs, signature envelopes, and digital files from the 2020 election. Federal agents raided the county elections office in January, seizing ballots, tabulator tapes, ballot images, and voter rolls. An unsealed affidavit later revealed that the investigation was based on widely debunked fraud claims and originated with a referral from Kurt Olsen, a former Trump campaign lawyer who helped litigate the president’s false stolen-election narrative.
FBI Director Kash Patel defended the raid on social media, saying it was part of a criminal investigation into whether “alleged electoral improprieties involved intentional acts that violated federal criminal law.” But Fulton County leaders remain defiant. Robb Pitts, the Democratic chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, called the subpoena “yet another act of outrageous federal overreach designed to intimidate and chill participation in elections.” Pitts, who is running for reelection, added, “Let me be crystal clear. Fulton County will not be intimidated.”
The dispute comes as Democrats are already clashing over the party’s 2024 election autopsy, with some arguing the party needs a sharper message to win back working-class voters. Meanwhile, the Progressive Caucus is pushing a new affordability agenda aimed at addressing the economic concerns that helped drive the 2020 election’s bitter aftermath.
Fulton County has been at the center of Trump’s election fraud claims since he lost to Joe Biden in 2020. In a January 2021 phone call, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” — the margin he needed to flip the state. That pressure campaign, along with the ongoing DOJ investigation, continues to fuel tensions between local officials and federal law enforcement.
