U.S. District Judge Orders Georgia County to Stop Software Update on Voting Machines, Reverses Order

NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - NOVEMBER 06: A Clark County election worker checks a voting mach
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Alana Mastrangelo

A U.S. district judge issued a federal court order to stop officials in Georgia from performing a software update that would “wipe” or “reset” Fulton County voting machines, according to the order, which was shared by attorney Lin Wood.

The attorney added that the order was later “reversed” when a judge deemed Georgia counties to be in control of the voting machines.

“Time to obey the law. Stop the destruction of evidence,” tweeted Wood at several Georgia officials on Sunday, sharing an image of the federal court order.

“Plaintiffs contend that union county officials have advised that they are going to wipe or reset the voting machines of all data and bring the count back to zero on Monday, November 30,” the court order stated. It went on:

To the extent Plaintiffs seek a temporary restraining order to preserve the voting machines in the State of Georgia, and to prevent any wiping of data, their motion is granted. Defendants are ordered to maintain the status quo and are temporarily enjoined from wiping or resetting any voting machines in the State of Georgia until further order of the Court.

The order was signed by U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten on Sunday.

“Our Republican recount monitors at the World Congress Center waited today for four hours while Fulton County elections officials ‘updated the software,'” tweeted the Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, David Shafer.

“The explanation given to me – ‘just the usual Fulton County incompetence’ – is completely unacceptable,” Shafer added.

“Thankfully [Lin Wood] this afternoon obtained an emergency federal court order prohibiting any ‘wiping’ or ‘resetting’ of the voting machines,” continued Shafer in a follow-up tweet.

Wood is the Georgia-based attorney most famous for successfully suing the media on behalf of Richard Jewell in the 90s, as well as on behalf of Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann last year.

“It is outrageous that we cannot rely on Fulton County elections officials to do their jobs without unexplained four hour delays, interventions by private attorneys and federal court orders,” Shafer added.

The court order, however, was apparently rescinded, as Wood later announced in a follow-up tweet that a judge had reversed the federal order based on the Defendants’ claim that Georgia counties control voting machines.

“What??? Judge reversed order based on Defendants’ claim that GA Counties control voting machines,” wrote Wood. “Machines are owned by State & [Georgia Secretary of State] administers state laws on elections.”

“Why are GA officials determined to wipe these machines clean be resetting them?” the attorney inquired.

“On November 24, a litigation hold notice was served on Fulton County which demanded that all evidence related to voting machines be preserved,” explained Wood in another tweet.

“Scrubbing the machines or tampering with them in any manner should NOT be occurring,” he declared.

Researchers have questioned the reliability of new voting machines that state and local officials have rushed to implement at their polling locations ahead of the 2020 presidential election — machines which are used in all of Georgia’s counties.

All eyes are on Georgia, as the state is now ground zero for the battle for the balance of power in Washington, D.C.

Control of the U.S. Senate now hinges on the outcome of the two Senate runoff races this January. With the Senate majority leadership just a couple seats away, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently declared, “Now we take Georgia, and then we change America.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.

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