A newly unsealed federal affidavit shows the FBI confirmed multiple irregularities in Fulton County’s 2020 vote counting and is investigating whether any were intentional violations of federal law.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Federal investigators have substantiated several irregularities in how votes were counted in Georgia’s most populous county following the 2020 presidential election and are examining whether those failures were deliberate efforts to violate federal election laws, according to a sworn affidavit unsealed this week and first reported by Just the News.
The affidavit was filed by FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans in January to establish probable cause for a search warrant that authorized the seizure of roughly 700 boxes of 2020 election ballots from a storage warehouse in the Atlanta area. The request followed a referral from White House election integrity czar Kurt Olsen and is tied to an ongoing criminal investigation.
According to Evans, the affidavit draws on interviews conducted by the FBI with approximately a dozen witnesses who described a range of alleged problems dating back to the contested 2020 election in Georgia, where Joe Biden was narrowly declared the winner over President Donald Trump. While some allegations were dismissed, Evans wrote that others were confirmed, including through admissions by Fulton County officials themselves.
“Some of those allegations have been disproven while some of those allegations have been substantiated, including through admissions by Fulton County,” Evans stated in the affidavit. “This warrant application is part of an FBI criminal investigation into whether any of the improprieties were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws.”
The affidavit identifies five categories of substantiated irregularities that remain under investigation. Among them, Fulton County acknowledged it does not possess scanned images for all ballots counted during the original tally or the first statewide recount, totaling more than 528,000 ballots, representing a significant loss of election records. Investigators also documented that during the recount process, some ballots were scanned more than once, with publicly released ballot images showing duplicated ballots bearing identical markings.
During Georgia’s risk-limiting audit, auditors reported batch vote totals that did not match the actual votes within those batches. The affidavit states that the State Performance Review Board later confirmed that investigators for the secretary of state verified inaccurate batch tallies from that audit. Auditors also reported handling purported absentee ballots that showed no evidence of being folded or creased, despite such folding being required for ballots mailed to voters and returned in signed envelopes.
Additionally, the affidavit notes a significant discrepancy in ballot totals reported by Fulton County during the recount. On the deadline day, officials reported a recount total of 511,343 ballots, which was 17,434 fewer than the original count. The following day, Fulton County revised the figure to 527,925 ballots counted.
Many of the issues outlined in the affidavit had been reported previously by Just the News based on its review of ballot records over several years. The affidavit cites earlier reporting that included accounts from a contractor sent to observe vote counting on behalf of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who documented confusion, errors, and irregularities in Fulton County. Former Gov. Brian Kemp later referred the county for investigation over ballot miscounting concerns tied to those findings.
Despite acknowledging problems in Fulton County’s election administration, Raffensperger has repeatedly maintained that none of the irregularities altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential race in Georgia.
However, one witness interviewed by the FBI, identified in the affidavit as “Witness 4” and described as a senior official in the secretary of state’s office during the 2020 election, acknowledged being unaware of some of the corroborated issues and conceded they could be problematic. According to the affidavit, the witness said discrepancies between physical ballots and ballot images would raise concerns but did not know whether officials had ever verified those numbers.
The FBI investigation remains ongoing, with agents examining whether the confirmed irregularities were the result of mistakes or intentional acts that violated federal criminal statutes.
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