A Fulton County judge has dismissed one lawsuit and stayed another that sought access to the county’s 2020 election ballots in a pair of decisions that expressed frustration with the recent FBI seizure of those same materials.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney had already ruled the State Election Board could obtain ballot images and other documents from the election as it seeks to investigate the county’s conduct of the election. But on Monday the judge noted those documents now are in possession of the FBI.

“This court thus can no longer set measured and thoughtful parameters governing the handling and copying of these materials,” McBurney wrote. “We are left to hope that the Bureau and the Department of Justice handle the ballots and related records with the care required to preserve and protect their integrity.”

McBurney also dismissed a separate lawsuit brought by Garland Favorito, an election integrity advocate, who also sought access to the ballots.

“Those records were, until recently, here in Fulton County,” McBurney wrote in a brief order dismissing Favorito’s lawsuit. “Now, however, they are somewhere else. Where exactly the court cannot say.”

The judge’s orders underscore the uncertainty around what has become of the ballots the FBI seized during the Jan. 28 raid. The FBI has declined to say where the ballots are, and Fulton County officials have sought to regain custody of the election materials.

The search warrant used to obtain the county’s ballots indicates the FBI is investigating allegations of voting fraud. An affidavit to be unsealed Tuesday is expected to provide a first glimpse of the evidence used to obtain the warrant.

McBurney cited the sealed affidavit in his order staying the State Election Board lawsuit, writing it “has yet to be shared with the citizens whose ballots were taken.”

Numerous state and federal investigations have found no evidence of significant fraud in the 2020 election. But President Donald Trump has insisted the election was rigged, and efforts to review Fulton County’s ballots have intensified.

Favorito filed a lawsuit in December 2020 seeking to review the ballots. McBurney dismissed most of the claims in that lawsuit last week.

Favorito filed a second lawsuit in 2024. That’s the one McBurney dismissed Monday.