By Shipwreckedcrew
There was a flurry of legal activity during the course of the day on Sunday regarding the status of Dominion voting machines in Georgia, and efforts by the Plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought by Sidney Powell and Lin Wood to have them preserved in their present condition until Plaintiffs’ experts could examine them.
Apparently, at some point, the Plaintiffs learned that all devices in Georgia are going to be “wiped” clean of data in preparation for the upcoming run-off elections scheduled for the first week of January 2021
In response, Plaintiffs filed an emergency motion with federal District Judge Timothy Batten seeking an emergency temporary restraining order directing Defendants to maintain the machines in their current condition until such time as they could be subjected to examination and testing by Plaintiffs’ experts.
“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.
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 their data, their motion is granted. Defendants are ordered to maintain the status quo and are temporarily enjoined from wiping or resetting any voting machines until further order of the court.”
Later in the day, Judge Batten issued a second order which reversed his first order.
“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.”
It is likely that the first Order was issued without notice to the State Defendants, or an opportunity is given to them to be heard given the exigencies of the matter. But, after the first Order was entered, and not wanting to be blamed for actions they could not control, the State Defendants sought reconsideration from Judge Batten by making him aware of the current status of the machines and who was in control of them for purposes of “wiping” them clean. That led Judge Batten to reverse himself on the basis that officials from the Counties in possession of the machines were not named as defendants in the case, and as such he had no jurisdiction to order them to act or not act in any particular manner.
But that was not the end of the matter as it turned out.
Plaintiff’s applied a second time for emergency relief, and the Court conducted an emergency hearing via Zoom. To address the issue of jurisdiction over county election officials, Plaintiffs’ counsel told Judge Batten that they would be amending their complaint to name the members of the Election Boards from Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties as Defendants. They asked that machines from those three counties by the subject of his Order and that the Court order that the machines be provided to Plaintiffs’ experts for examination and inspection. That process will be videotaped, and experts or other representatives of the Counties and State Defendants can be present to observe.
The State Defendants objected on the basis that the Dominion machines ran proprietary software, and examination by experts would likely result in the discovery of “trade secret” information. But the Plaintiffs offered to enter into a protective order to cover any such information, which is the standard method used in such circumstances.
On the basis of those conditions, Judge Batten granted the Plaintiffs’ request and ordered that machines from the three counties be preserved in their current condition. He gave the State Defendants until Wednesday, December 2, 2020, to file legal authorities in opposition to the request by Plaintiffs to have the machines inspected and tested by Plaintiffs’ experts. The Order is good for 10 days.
Update:
Judge Batten has authorized and "interlocutory" appeal of his TRO by the Defendants to the 11th Circuit.
They REALLY REALLY do not want these machines inspected.
LMAO.
Since a TRO is not deemed an "appealable order" normally, the district judge must approve such an appeal— shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) November 30, 2020
But… but… but they don’t have any EVIDENCE!!! No, they evidence of the evidence. But they need access to the machines before they get Bleachbit them to get the evidence and show the courts. The evidence of the evidence is clear and palpable. Even more reassuring is how desperately the left is trying to keep the Republicans from getting at it.
@Deplorable Me: I have an idea, we know the features of these machines lets set it to cheat, filming the process, then say they cheated. Its the St. Louis style prosecution for self defense gun owners surely that will appeal to their sense of justice.
@kitt: Now, you know that is only acceptable when Democrats are doing it to try to back-fill the commission of a crime. Cmon, man!
The machines will unfortunately be destroyed by fire. The system software is proprietary and may not be examined. The votes are final and may not be challenged.
The election has been fixed. It may not be undone or investigated.
Russian style negotiation: what is ours is ours, what is yours we will soon take.
Watching the MI hearing, there are windows where you can see protestors outside with trump flags.
@mathman: Probably turn it all over to Crowdstrike to give us the real truth.