the recount. He also permitted the Democratic and Republican Parties to designate special recount monitors.
Wood alleged that officials ignored their own rules and denied Wood and President Donald Trump’s campaign “meaningful access to observe and monitor the electoral process.” Although Wood did not personally attempt to observe or monitor the recount, he alleged that Secretary Raffensperger and the Board violated his “vested interest in being present and having meaningful access to observe and monitor the electoral process to ensure that it is properly administered… and… otherwise free, fair, and transparent.”
Wood submitted two affidavits from volunteer monitors. One monitor stated that she was not allowed to enter the counting area because there were too many monitors already present, and she could not be sure from a distance whether the recount was accurate. The other explained that the counting was hard for her to follow and described what she thought were possible tabulation errors.
Wood moved for extraordinary relief. He asked that the district court take one of three steps: prohibit Georgia from certifying the results of the November election; prevent it from certifying results that include “defective absentee ballots, regardless of whether said ballots were cured”; or declare the entire election defective and order the state to fix the problems caused by the settlement agreement. He also sought greater access for Republican election monitors, both at
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