Sidney Powell’s Georgia Lawsuit Could ‘Significantly’ Impact Runoff Election, Officials Warn

Topline

A court order in a Georgia legal challenge brought by former Trump legal advisor Sidney Powell and conservative attorney Lin Wood could “significantly and materially interfere” with preparations for the state’s Jan. 5 runoff election in two counties, Georgia officials said in a court filing late Thursday, potentially making voting more difficult for some voters in the Democratic-leaning Atlanta suburbs if the order is allowed to stand.

Key Facts

Powell has filed lawsuits in battleground states that allege widespread fraud and push a baseless conspiracy theory involving voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems, including litigation that both Powell and Wood are leading in Georgia.

As part of that case, a district court judge ordered Nov. 29 that election officials in Georgia’s Cobb, Gwinnett and Cherokee counties not alter or erase any data from Dominion voting machines for ten days or until the court orders otherwise.

In a court filing, attorneys for the state said the order “would cause substantial harm to Georgia voters in Cobb and Gwinnett counties” if allowed to remain in effect, asking the court to amend the order so that counties can move forward with necessary machine testing before the runoff election.

Cobb County officials’ ability to prepare for the Jan. 5 runoffs “will be significantly hindered if not practically precluded altogether” if the order stands, the officials said, and Gwinnett county voters could be “deprived” of early voting, which is set to begin Dec. 14.

Voters in the two counties, which both elected President-elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump, could also face long voting lines “due to an insufficient number of voting machines.”

The officials also note that it’s unnecessary to keep voting data on the machines as Powell and Wood want, because data from the election is already stored in multiple other places and will not be lost if the machines are cleared.

Crucial Quote

“The continued threat of enforcement of the [temporary restraining order]…would rule out, or at least make extremely difficult, any chance of readiness for early voting on December 14 and election-day voting” in Cobb and Gwinnett counties, the court filing notes. “The harm to the counties, Georgia voters, and the State election process itself cannot be overstated.”

Tangent

Powell’s lawsuits have been plagued by a litany of errors, ranging from minor typos to major mistakes like naming officials as plaintiffs who never actually agreed to sign on to the lawsuit. The attorney made another notable blunder in a court filing Friday in the Georgia case, which has been appealed to the 11th Circuit, as Powell and Wood accidentally claimed that Dominion machines flipped votes from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. The mistake undermines their argument that Biden’s win was unlawful by alleging it was actually Trump that gained fraudulent votes.

Key Background

Powell and Wood’s Georgia lawsuit, which is part of a broader legal effort by the Trump campaign and its GOP allies to contest Biden’s victory, has been a source of contention even among Republicans ahead of the Georgia runoff. The Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell after the attorney started pushing the Dominion voting conspiracy theory, and the campaign and other Trump-aligned Republicans blasted the conservative attorneys for recently telling supporters they should boycott the Georgia runoff because of the alleged fraud. “I don’t know who this clown is, but anyone saying America would be better off w/ Chuck Schumer as Majority Leader…is trying to mislead the people of Georgia,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Twitter in response to a video of Wood telling supporters not to vote. The Trump allies’ accusations of widespread voter fraud in Georgia and issues with Dominion voting machines have been debunked, including by the state’s Republican officials, and there is no evidence to support their claims.

Further Reading

Judge freezes voting machines in 3 Georgia counties (Politico)

Trump Campaign Burns Pro-Trump Attorney Telling Trump Voters To Boycott Georgia Runoff (Forbes)

Trump’s Allies Can’t Decide Whether To Boycott Georgia’s Runoff Elections (Forbes)

Georgia GOP Officials Slam Election Conspiracy Theories: ‘Exploiting The Emotions’ Of Trump Supporters (Forbes)

Pro-Trump legal crusade peppered with bizarre blunders (Politico)


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