North Gwinnett News

Gwinnett County Elections Supervisor Kristi Royston noted her concern for a temporary restraining order disallowing the county from wiping voter machines and resetting them given the upcoming U.S. Senate runoff elections. 

“The temporary restraining order has grave and serious consequences. It is preventing the Gwinnett County Board of Voter Registrations and Elections (GCBORE) from beginning its required preparation for the AIP (Absentee In Person) voting for the January 5 runoff for the two United States Senate seats. AIP is required by law to begin on December 14, 2020 and run for three weeks,” Royston said in an affidavit. 

Those challenging the elections are seeking to inspect the machines in their current state in court. However, Royston said it is not possible to do this without jeopardizing the upcoming election.

“Unless L & A testing begins this week, it will not be possible to timely execute all of the tasks necessary to facilitate the opening of the AIP in the County for what is anticipated to be a high turnout runoff election. During the General Election, the majority of voters who voted in person cast their votes during the three-week AIP period,” Royston said.  

The restraining order was filed following allegations of inaccuracy in ballot counts in Cobb, Gwinnett and Cherokee, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr. previously granted a 10-day restraining order on behalf of the Trump campaign. 

“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,” read the judge’s ruling.

Among those named in the filed lawsuit are Gov Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Kemp had already certified the vote.

The Trump campaign has filed a number of lawsuits citing voting irregularities with most of them being blamed on voting machine errors.