FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County will not get its seized ballots back, at least not yet.
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A federal judge has ordered Fulton County and the U.S. Department of Justice to enter mediation to determine the fate of ballots seized during an FBI raid last month.
Channel 2 Action News was there when federal agents removed box after box, 700 in total, from the Fulton County Elections Hub in South Fulton County. The ballots were from the 2020 election.
Fulton County later sued to get the ballots returned.
In a recent ruling issued late at night, a federal court judge directed both sides to mediation before receiving additional evidence in the case.
“The Court believes it is best for the parties to work toward a mutually agreeable resolution before receiving additional evidence,” the judge wrote.
However, one legal expert says that the decision leaves the ballots unprotected.
Dr. Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University, called the move “very puzzling.”
“When you have basic constitutional rights at stake like this, this isn’t a hit-and-run lawsuit. This is nothing for mediation. This should be dealt with immediately by a judge,” Cunningham said.
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Cunningham agrees with eight former U.S. attorneys and acting U.S. attorneys general who filed a legal brief declaring their belief that the search warrant used in the raid was unconstitutional.
“This is a situation where I think every expert who’s reviewed the case has come to the same conclusion that I have, which is that the Trump administration egregiously violated the Constitution in seizing these records from Fulton County,” Cunningham said.
He also said the judge should have ordered the federal government to preserve the documents and refrain from reviewing them. With the current ruling, Cunningham argues, there is nothing preventing the government from examining the ballots.
“To preserve the constitutional rights of the voters of Georgia, these documents should be under court control right now without having the government do a fishing expedition, look at voters’ personal records, make copies, that sort of thing,” he said.
There was no comment from the Department of Justice on Wednesday.
In a statement, Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said, “While we believe we are correct in our legal positions, we will follow the court’s instruction in good faith and look forward to a productive mediation.”
The mediation will determine what happens next with the 700 boxes of 2020 ballots seized from Fulton County.
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