Fulton County is fighting back against a federal subpoena that could expose thousands of poll workers from the 2020 election to unwanted contact and potential intimidation. The demand, issued in April by Dan Bishop, interim U.S. attorney for North Carolina's middle district, seeks the names, addresses, email addresses and personal phone numbers of election staff who worked the November 2020 vote.
County attorneys filed a motion to block the subpoena in Georgia federal court, arguing it amounts to politically motivated harassment and falls outside the statute of limitations for any 2020 election-related crime. The brief warns that targeting poll workers on this scale would discourage future participation in elections and violate Georgia's authority to run its own voting systems.
The subpoena narrows its focus to specific workers: those involved in ballot tabulation, mail-in ballot review, and the risk-limiting audit and recount that followed Election Day. Notably, the county must submit the contact information directly to Bishop's office rather than to a federal grand jury, where legal protections would normally shield the data from public or third-party disclosure.
Michael McNulty, policy director for the voting rights group Issue One, framed the action as part of a troubling pattern. "Election workers are the referees of our democracy, and they're going after the referees," McNulty said. "This is about intimidation of election officials for 2026, and taking executive branch control of elections in 2026."
The subpoena follows an earlier FBI raid on Fulton County's election offices in January, when agents removed about 700 boxes of original 2020 election material from a warehouse. That seizure was initiated by Kurt Olsen, a Trump attorney who led the "stop the steal" effort and whom Trump appointed as a special government employee to investigate his 2020 election claims. The search warrant was signed by Thomas Albus, U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Missouri.
Bishop, a former congressman from the Charlotte area, has a contentious political history. He ran unsuccessfully for North Carolina attorney general and sponsored a controversial state law targeting transgender people as a senator. He currently serves as interim U.S. attorney after his original 120-day appointment expired in March, raising legal questions about whether consecutive interim appointments of this type violate federal law.
McNulty characterized Bishop's role as part of a three-step strategy: spread election lies, install loyalists who deny election integrity, then weaponize government power against perceived enemies. "This is a sign of authoritarianism, not a democratically oriented government," he said.
The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment on the subpoena, deferring instead to the U.S. attorney's office in North Carolina.
Author James Rodriguez: "This looks less like law enforcement and more like a fishing expedition designed to chill election work ahead of 2026."
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