FBI’s seizure of 2020 ballots in Georgia is a signal of what’s to come

The Guardian - While the nation’s attention was focused on the ICE invasion of Minneapolis, another part of Trump’s authoritarian state apparatus was in action more than a thousand miles away. On Wednesday 28 January, the FBI carried out a stunning raid at the central election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.

Its purpose: to seize ballots cast in the 2020 election. Such an action is unprecedented.

In another unprecedented development, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was on the scene when the FBI carried out its raid. The New York Times quotes a “senior administration official” who explained her presence by saying Gabbard “has a pivotal role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections against interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases, and election infrastructure”.

The deployment of such firepower shows the lengths to which the president is willing to go to press his claim that the 2020 election was rigged and to lay the groundwork for the seizure of ballots in 2026. The seizure of ballots in Georgia is like a shot across the bow.

It should prompt concerted planning by state attorneys general and secretaries of state to resist federal interference in November.  MORE