Authored by Ivan Pentchoukov and Petr Svab via The Epoch Times,
A federal judge presiding over a major election lawsuit in Georgia on Sunday issued and then reversed an order directing the state to cease and desist wiping or resetting election machines.
“Defendants are ordered to maintain the status quo & are temporarily enjoined from wiping or resetting any voting machines in the State of Georgia until further order of the court,” Judge Timothy Batten wrote in an emergency order issued Nov. 29.
NEWS: Judge orders Georgia to cease and desist wiping or resetting any election machines.https://t.co/sn2D4IgUDM pic.twitter.com/ru2b0cuSqB
— Ivan Pentchoukov (@IvanPentchoukov) November 29, 2020
The judge reversed the order not long after, explaining that the defendants are not in possession of the machines.
“Plaintiffs’ request fails because the voting equipment that they seek to impound is in the possession of county election officials. Any injunction the Court issues would extend only to Defendants and those within their control, and Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that county election officials are within Defendants’ control. Defendants cannot serve as a proxy for local election officials against whom the relief should be sought,” the judge wrote.
The judge has now reversed the order. PDF via @themarketswork : https://t.co/7DZfgeUYZ1
— Ivan Pentchoukov (@IvanPentchoukov) November 29, 2020
The change of course by the judge drew a flabbergasted response from Lin Wood, an attorney associated with the Trump campaign.
“What??? Judge reversed order based on Defendants’ claim that GA Counties control voting machines,” Wood wrote on Twitter, adding that the machines are owned by the state and that the Georgia secretary of state administers elections.
“Why are GA officials determined to wipe these machines clean [by] resetting them?”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit on Sunday filed an emergency motion which included an affidavit featuring a Nov. 25 message from an election official stating that the ballot-counting machines would be reset to zero on Monday, Nov. 30, before performing a recount.