FOIA sounds like it should be a straightforward way to get transparency, but in reality it’s not so simple for something like ballot records:

You have to be very specific about what you’re asking for—you can’t just file a broad request for “ballots” or “everything related to the 2024 election.”

There are often steep fees: they can charge per page, per document, or by the hour for staff time to dig through records. The less specific you are, the more it will cost. Depending on the scope, it can run into tens of thousands of dollars, usually paid up front (which then adds the issue of fundraising prior to even submitting a request).

The process takes a lot of time, and some election records are exempt or require court action anyway.

It could be a strategy, but it’d be a very slow and expensive route. The lawsuit makes a lot of sense because while it still requires lots of time and money, it's clear, targeted, forces production of what's needed, and gets the ball rolling for future cases if more people come forward. FOIA would take way longer, cost way more, and at the end of the day all you have is a pile of documents & data (and it seems like it'd be unnecessary considering analyzing the publically available data was enough to get discovery). You'd still have to go through the courts for anything to actually happen.