Fulton County puts a $435,000 price tag on 2020 records

The vast majority of the documents, including chain-of-custody forms, documentation of security seals and ballot scanner paperwork, would cost about $435,000, according to Fulton County Elections Director Nadine Williams in a Wednesday court filing. Williams said delivering most of the records would require searching through hundreds of boxes to review records and make copies.

She estimated it would require more than a dozen staff members and 15 weeks to complete, with additional time and staff for potential redactions. Electronic files, including images of ballots, would be less costly.

The board issued the subpoenas in 2024, and Fulton has sought to quash them. Last month, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney cleared the way, ruling the board is within its authority to receive the records.

The state board’s only Democrat, Sara Tindall Ghazal, declined to comment on the matter. The rest of the board did not respond to requests for comment.

It is unclear how the documents could shape discussion around the 2020 election. Three tallies — an Election Day machine count, a hand-count audit and a machine recount — upheld Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia.

For years, President Donald Trump and his supporters have claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him. Allegations of widespread voter fraud have never been proved, although investigations have found problems in Fulton’s handling of the 2020 election.

In December, an attorney for the county admitted that poll workers neglected to sign tabulation tapes for voting machines that counted about 315,000 ballots cast during early voting. Some conservatives claimed it was evidence that hundreds of thousands of votes were illegally certified. But Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called it a “clerical error” that didn’t invalidate any votes.

The State Election Board isn’t alone in its pursuit to obtain records from the county’s long-scrutinized election. A lawsuit filed by the Trump administration late last year also wants to examine 2020 records.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Fulton County Superior Court clerk Ché Alexander in federal court to get access to the county’s 2020 ballots and other election materials, which have been kept under seal.

In a Monday court filing, the county asked a judge to dismiss the suit. In addition to arguing that the administration’s request falls outside the federally required 22-month retention period for the county to hold on to documents, it said it filed its demand under the wrong law.

The county argued the law cited by the administration allows only federal investigations of voter registration records, rather than ballots and other election materials sought by the Justice Department.

The Justice Department argued it’s necessary to inspect the records to see whether Fulton has complied with federal election laws.

The county contended the DOJ’s “actual purpose for seeking the 2020 election materials appears to be an investigation of alleged election irregularities more than five years ago.”

Fulton said that if Trump’s Justice Department wants the ballots, it should take up the matter in Superior Court, where judges have the authority to unseal them.