And the court says that even if Wood could bring this lawsuit (which he can't) and if he hadn't waited too long (which he did), he'd also lose on the merits.
The judge (a Trump appointee), goes out of his way to shoot down Wood's theory of an Equal Protection violation, which is very similar to the arguments Trump's campaign has made in its own lawsuit in Pennsylvania.
The judge said claims that lots of invalid ballots were counted in Georgia is "not supported by the evidence at this stage." The rejection rate for absentee ballots in Georgia in 2020 was the same as it was two years ago.
The court also rejects Wood's theory that a settlement agreement that altered voting procedures violated the Elections Clause, because only the legislature can make those rules. The court says the legislature clearly delegated authority to the secretary of state.
The court says that while some witnesses "speculate as to wide-spread impropriety," the case is really a "garden variety election dispute." And it rejects his claims that partisan observers had a right to monitor vote counting and recounting more closely.
A federal judge took a wrecking ball to the legal effort to upset Trump's loss in Georgia, basically rejecting the challenge in every way possible. And he did it in a way that impugns some of the arguments the president himself is making elsewhere.
courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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More from @bradheath

22 Nov
It is certainly true that losing a case gets you one step closer to appellate review. However /
If you had instead won the case, you would have already won and wouldn't need to appeal, which is the usual strategy in litigation.
Also, if your goal is to tee up a case for appellate review, you don't want to lose like this.

You don't want to have to take up a case that you lost in part because it was incompetently litigated. And you don't want to take up a case you lost for Every Possible Reason.
Read 11 tweets
21 Nov
The judge observes that the Trump campaign is "trying to mix-and-match claims to bypass contrary precedent." Image
The court rules that both the Trump campaign and its two attempted-voter plaintiffs lack standing to bring the case. Image
The voter-plaintiffs lack standing because although they were denied the right to vote (because their ballots were invalid), they sued other counties and the state that did not invalidate their votes, not the counties that did. Image
Read 19 tweets
21 Nov
Meanwhile, some Pennsylvania Republicans led by Rep. @MikeKellyPA are asking a state court to declare that the state's entire vote-by-mail system, violates the state constitution and that millions of votes cast this year must now be invalidated. Image
The lawsuit is marked as having been filed at 4 a.m. Image
The lawsuit is a challenge to Act 77, which it says is "another illegal attempt to override the limitations on absentee voting" in the state constitution. The act was approved more than a year ago; the lawsuit doesn't say why they waited until after this election to challenge it. Image
Read 14 tweets
20 Nov
Exhibit J: Military ballots were "very clean." Many of the ballots "were for Biden. Many batches went 100% for Biden." Also, the watermark on three of the ballots didn't look right. "I believe the military ballots are highly suspicious of fraud."
[We're more than halfway there!]
Exhibit K: A witness says some workers did "fast counting" of ballots - instead of having each one verified by two people. Ballot boxes were left unattended. Some damaged ballots were "duplicated," but she wasn't allowed to ask what that meant. (It's a normal thing.)
Read 15 tweets
20 Nov
Trump's lawyers said the other day that the press refuses to look at all the evidence the president and his allies have put forward of a massive scheme to rig the election.

I did.

Georgia edition, from the case filed by Trump ally L. Lin Wood ->
Exhibit A: A witness declares she was "not close enough to see much of anything" during Georgia's recount.
Exhibit B: A witness declares that people conducting the recount were not great at math. Also, sometimes ballots were left unattended on a table and drinks also were left on those tables.
Read 9 tweets
20 Nov
President Trump's lawyers have filed a new motion in Pennsylvania making clear that they only want to block the state from certifying the results of the presidential election, which they claim was fraudulent. It can certify the other races, decided on the same ballots, they say.
Marks v. Stinson has become the hydroxychloroquine of the president's post-election litigation.
Interesting concession in Trump's filing: If PA certifies its electors by Dec. 8, its certification "shall be conclusive" when Congress meets to count electoral votes. (That's in the statute, but you'd think they'd want some wiggle room here.)
Read 6 tweets

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