A federal appeals court in Georgia has approved an expedited review of pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell’s request for a forensic review of voting machines in three counties.
Powell filed a lawsuit last week alleging that Dominion Election Systems voting machines used in the 2020 election in Georgia are insecure and allow foreign agents to meddle in the U.S. election. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr. issued an order on Sunday restricting officials in Georgia’s Cherokee, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties from resetting Dominion Election Systems voting machines because of the lawsuit.
“Defendants are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from altering, destroying, or erasing, or allowing the alteration, destruction, or erasure of, any software or data on any Dominion voting machine in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties,” Batten’s order said. “This temporary restraining order shall remain in effect for ten days, or until further order of the Court, whichever comes first.”
Batten did not grant Powell an immediate audit of the Dominion voting machines, however, and allowed her to appeal that decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court plans to expedite hearings on Powell’s request, according to Bloomberg.
Georgia has had a slew of election-related troubles this cycle, the latest of which has caused election officials in Fulton County to rescan 12,000 ballots. Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer announced the partial recount on Wednesday night.
“Fulton County Commissioner [Liz Hausmann] just alerted me that Fulton County is re-scanning a batch of 12,000 ballots due to unexplained technical problems,” said Shafer. “We have dispatched Republican monitors back to the tabulation center. This is maddening.”
On Sunday, election officials in the county said that they had to pause an ongoing recount after a Dominion mobile server crashed and that a technician was fixing the problem. The Daily Wire reported at the time:
Election officials outlined the problem to 11Alive, saying that a Dominion server issue temporarily delayed the recount. President Trump’s campaign requested the recount on Nov. 21 the day after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had certified Georgia’s election results following an initial recount of ballots.
“Technicians from Dominion have been dispatched to resolve the issue,” Fulton County election officials told 11Alive in a statement. “The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has also been alerted to the issue and is aware of efforts to resolve the problem.”
Officials said that they expected counting to begin again on Monday morning. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was leading Trump by about 12,000 votes in the state before the second recount began.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who has faced significant blowback over Georgia’s handling of the election, slammed Fulton County officials on Tuesday over the “dysfunction” in the county.
“Us and our office, and I think the rest of the state, is getting a little tired of always having to wait on Fulton County and always having to put up with their dysfunction,” Raffensperger said. “They can still make it by our midnight Wednesday deadline, but they seem to want to make it a dramatic finish.”
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