NAACP Seeks Protection for Voter Data Seized by FBI
The NAACP has officially requested a federal judge to safeguard voter information taken by the FBI from an election warehouse in Atlanta.
Together with other organizations, the NAACP contends that these documents hold “sensitive personal information.” They’ve asked the judge to impose restrictions on how the FBI can utilize this data. Their complaint argues that the seizure from the Fulton County election office “violated constitutional privacy protections and interfered with the right to vote.”
The motion implores the judge to “order reasonable limitations on the government’s use of the seized data,” stating it should only be used for the criminal investigation specified in the search warrant. It also seeks to prevent the FBI from using the information for purposes like voter roll management, election administration, or immigration.
Furthermore, they are requesting the judge to mandate that the government provide an inventory of all documents seized, the identities of individuals who accessed the records but are not involved in the criminal probe, copies of said records, and details on any measures taken to protect this information.
The FBI executed a search warrant at the election warehouse on January 28, looking for materials related to the 2020 election, such as all ballots, tally tape from voting scanners, images of electronic ballots collected during the counting and recount phases, and complete voter rolls.
This motion was filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of the NAACP, alongside the Georgia and Atlanta NAACP branches and the Georgia People’s Agenda Coalition. It’s significant that this seizure took place while the Justice Department was reviewing the state’s unredacted voter registration records.
Officials in Fulton County informed journalists that FBI agents had taken about 700 boxes of ballots from a warehouse near the election center and loaded them onto trucks.
In addition, Fulton County has initiated a separate lawsuit against the FBI, seeking the return of the election documents.
