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“That would require suspending the certification of results in a state election in which millions of people voted,” the judge said. “It would interfere with an election after the vote.”
The judge also appeared to allude to the acrimonious atmosphere surrounding the election as a reason to be wary of any interference in the process, as Wood requested.
“It harms the public interest in countless ways, especially in the environment in which this election was held,” Grimberg said. “To stop certification at the 11th hour, literally, would create confusion and could potentially deprive the right to vote of rights which I believe have no basis in fact or in law.
Much of Wood’s complaint complained about a consent decree, reached in March, which required officials to try to contact a voter before disqualifying a mail-in ballot due to a signature that didn’t appear not match that of the folder.
However, Russ Willard, a lawyer in the Georgia attorney general’s office, said there was no legitimate reason for Wood to show up to court eight months later to oppose the widely publicized deal.
“The plaintiff tries to change the rules at the end of the game in order to change the score,” said Willard
Grimberg also agreed on this point, saying that the unreasonable delay curtailed Wood’s request for a restraining order. But the judge’s ruling offered a glimmer of hope for Trump supporters. He said he might have viewed the lawsuit differently if it had been brought by the Trump campaign itself or even by the Republican Party.
“Neither the Republican Party, nor the Trump campaign, nor any other candidate joined this trial,” the judge said. “It certainly would have changed the analysis in terms of standing.”
Wood quickly promised to appeal, but Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani also signaled the campaign could file its own federal lawsuit in Georgia as early as Friday.
Some of the claims Wood made as evidence of fraud or wrongdoing during Thursday’s hearing seemed to crumble under close scrutiny.
Wood’s attorney Ray Smith said the percentage of mail-in votes rejected by election officials fell sharply in the last election, suggesting authorities are now ignoring fraud and errors that have allegedly been detected in the past.
But Willard said the change reflected the fact that after the 2018 election, Georgia’s Legislature removed certain requirements for mail-in ballots, including the rule that such voters must enter their date of birth. on the return envelope. Many were reluctant to do so for privacy reasons, so they left that field blank, he said. This year there was no such requirement, so those refusals were not a problem.
An audit of election results that officials completed on Thursday led Trump to close the gap with Biden by around 2,000 votes, but still outside the striking range.
The Trump campaign took a modest victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday night as a state appeals committee ruled, 2-1, in favor of a Republican candidate’s candidacy to disqualify 2,349 ballots by mail order in the Pittsburgh area that lacked a date next to the voter signature.
This decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. If maintained, that could reduce Biden’s vote tally, but doesn’t appear to be a way for Trump to overcome Biden’s lead of around 81,000 votes in the state.
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