Law Enforcement Agencies Are Seizing Millions of Election Ballots Across the Country

Since January, federal agents and local sheriffs have taken hundreds of thousands of ballots and election records from counties in at least four states. The seizures involve both the 2020 and 2024 elections. This is a significant shift in how law enforcement typically handles election-related investigations.

What Happened in Georgia

The largest seizure so far happened in Fulton County, Georgia. In January, FBI agents took 600 boxes of ballots from the 2020 election out of the county's election office in Union City. A federal judge later ruled that the Department of Justice could keep these materials, even after Fulton County sued to get them back.

The federal investigation in Georgia expanded beyond that raid. In April, federal prosecutors obtained a court order to get the names and phone numbers of all Fulton County workers and volunteers who helped run the 2020 election. FBI agents were also authorized to seize all physical ballots from that election, along with digital copies and the county's voter registration list.

A federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to publicly explain why they wanted the search warrant for those Fulton County ballots. According to an NPR review of the documents released so far, the FBI's official justification left out some important findings.

The Same Thing Is Happening in Other States

What happened in Georgia is not isolated. In March, federal prosecutors obtained digital copies of ballots from Maricopa County, Arizona, using a court order related to an audit of the 2020 election. The FBI also requested records about that same audit.

More recently, in April, the Department of Justice demanded that Wayne County, Michigan turn over 2024 election records. Michigan state officials refused and said they would challenge the demand in court.

In Ohio, a Homeland Security agent asked Franklin County election officials in January for access to voter records.

A County Sheriff Takes Action on His Own

In California, things happened differently. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco conducted his own investigation without working with federal agencies. In February, he executed a search warrant and seized more than 650,000 ballots from a special election held in November 2025. The seizure included nearly 1,000 boxes of election materials from the county's elections office.

Bianco started his investigation after receiving a complaint from a local group about how the votes were counted in that special election on redistricting. Riverside County has 2.5 million residents and is one of California's largest counties.

In March, Riverside County voters filed a petition with the California Supreme Court asking the court to order Sheriff Bianco to return the ballots. Two voting rights organizations filed court papers supporting the voters' lawsuit.

Counties Are Fighting Back in Court

The seizures have led to legal battles. Fulton County sued to get its ballots back. Michigan officials are preparing to challenge the federal demand for their election records in court. These disputes raise a basic question about how power works in American elections.

Traditionally, counties and states have run elections themselves, with the federal government stepping in only when there is a specific violation of federal law. These seizures suggest a shift toward more direct federal control over election materials.

Looking at this pattern over the course of my career covering government and technology, there is a parallel to tensions we saw two decades ago, when federal agencies tried to expand control over critical infrastructure like power grids and transportation systems. Then, as now, the friction came down to who holds the records and has the final say. The specifics have changed, but the underlying tension remains the same.

The Political Backdrop Matters

The timing and targets of these seizures fall within a particular political moment. Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff who seized California ballots, is a Republican running for California governor in the June primary election. His independent action targeting a redistricting election sits at the intersection of law enforcement and electoral politics.

The federal seizures reach back to 2020 and forward to 2024, suggesting investigations that span multiple election cycles. The states involved—Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, and California—all played a significant role in disputes over the 2020 election results.

Some of the counties now seeing ballot seizures have also seen other challenges to election results in the past. In Nevada's Washoe County, for example, three board members initially refused to certify the results of a recount in two primary elections in 2024, though the state's top election official went to court and won a ruling that forced them to certify anyway.

The broader context here is that these seizures go well beyond what federal agencies have typically done after elections. Federal law enforcement routinely investigates election crimes, but taking ballots directly from multiple counties across different states is new territory. It represents a significant expansion of federal involvement in how elections are handled after voting ends.