Despite President Donald Trump’s continued focus on the outcome of the 2020 election and his musings earlier this year that Republicans should “nationalize” elections in select states, Georgia voters largely agree that elections should remain under state control.

According to an exclusive Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, 98% of Democratic primary voters in Georgia somewhat or strongly disapprove of the idea of federal control over elections. Republicans are more divided, but 48% somewhat or strongly disapprove of the idea, and 7% said they didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion on a federal takeover.

Republicans have sought to keep the federal government out of state affairs for years. But with elections, some are willing to make an exception.

“I don’t really like the federal government getting their nose into everything, and there are a lot of people who feel that way,” said Janet Kaszer, a 72-year-old retired critical care nurse from Cherokee County. “But if the states are so out of compliance, then it may have to be done for a while, but I’d hate to see it permanent.”

The release of the poll resultscomes as Fulton County moves to halt a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking personal data from 2020 election workers as part of a criminal probe into the county’s administration of that vote.

Trump has moved aggressively during his second term to expand federal power over American elections. The administration has sent federal agents to seize troves of 2020 election records and sought unredacted voter rolls from states across the country. Trump signed an executive order in March restricting mail-in voting and has called for Republicans to “take over” elections.

Daniel Catanese, a 24-year-old from Cobb County, said he views some of the federal action as backlash for the 2020 election.

“It does sort of seem like they’re testing the waters of what they can get away with,” he said.

The U.S. Constitution gives states the authority to administer and set the rules for their elections, though Congress can enact changes. The president doesn’t have a role in elections, said Gowri Ramachandran, the Brennan Center for Justice’s director of elections and security.

Ramachandran said the culmination of all Trump’s actions during his second term is “telegraphing this desire to have the president or the executive branch be involved in elections in a way that’s just not appropriate and isn’t legal.”

The administration hasn’t gone unchallenged. Courts have blocked key parts of the president’s 2025 executive order, and the president’s most recent order on mail-in voting remains tied up in litigation. So far, federal judges have tossed out half a dozen of the Justice Department’s attempts to get unredacted state voter rolls. In the DOJ case against Georgia, a judge scheduled a June hearing.

Richard Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA, said courts have confirmed Trump has no role in the conduct of elections, but that won’t necessarily stop him from trying or threatening.

While Trump tries to reshape American elections, the administration is investigating his 2020 grievances. Trump has continued to falsely claim the 2020 election was “rigged” against him.

In late January, FBI agents descended onto Fulton County to seize hundreds of boxes of 2020 election records as part of a criminal probe into election “irregularities.” A federal judge on Wednesday denied Fulton’s request to retrieve its ballots from the DOJ.

DOJ also issued a grand jury subpoena in April seeking personal information about thousands of 2020 Fulton election workers.

In the AJC poll, 89% of likely Democratic primary voters somewhat or strongly disapproved of the FBI’s raid in Fulton County, but about 3 in 4 likely Republican primary voters somewhat or strongly support. The divide shows how the two parties have processed the extraordinary ballot seizure differently. Although some Republicans appear to still be seeking vindication, Democrats are convinced the probe itself is a threat to future elections.

“I think they have to have access to things, and that’s how cheating is found out, so why not?” said Kaszer of Cherokee County.

Numerous investigations have found no evidence of widespread voting fraud, and multiple vote counts upheld Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Democrats see it as a frivolous investigation that lays the groundwork for disputes during the midterms and sows doubts about the integrity of the state’s electoral process.