Election officials in Georgia are fighting a Department of Justice request to obtain the personal information of election workers during the 2020 election.
The information includes the names, addresses, and phone numbers of election workers in Fulton County, home to Atlanta.
“The first question is, why in the world would they need it?” Robb Pitts, chairman of the board of commissioners in Fulton County, told Scripps News. “I think personally, that is a form of, obviously, harassment, intimidation and a move to sort of dampen the interest of people willing to and wanting to work in future elections, as well as probably put fear into people from even going to vote.”
Pitts says a couple thousand election workers could be impacted. County officials have asked a federal judge to quash the grand jury subpoena that is seeking the information.
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Fulton County has been at the center of controversy following the 2020 election results. President Trump and his allies have said there was fraud in Fulton County during the 2020 election. Courts have rejected that argument in the past.
The Department of Justice did not respond to a Scripps News request for more information about why they are seeking election workers personal information.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, former Georgia election workers, won a $145 million dollar defamation lawsuit against Trump ally, Rudy Giuliani, after the former New York City mayor falsely accused the women of committing ballot fraud during the 2020 election.
“In my judgment, we continue to be the number one target of the President and his allies, and they are going to do whatever they can to, I guess, in a sense get revenge on what happened when he believes or thinks or imagines, happened to him here in 2020,” said Pitts.
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In January, the FBI raided a Fulton County election facility and left with about 600 boxes. A federal judge ruled that the administration does not have to return the boxes to local officials.
Pitt said the boxes contained personal information and ballots.
In court documents, the administration argued that the “FBI is investigating irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County.”
Primary election day in Georgia will be on May 19th. Early voting started on April 27th and is expected to end on May 15th.
Pitts told Scripps News the continuing investigations and scrutiny surrounding Georgia could dissuade voters from going to the polls this year.
“The turnout to date in Fulton County has been lower than it normally is, and I attribute that in part to all of the attention about voter information and this whole effort of harassment by the President and his allies,” he said.
