a new hand recount of the November election and in a runoff election scheduled for January 5, 2021.
Wood’s lawsuit faced a quickly approaching obstacle: Georgia law requires the Secretary of State to certify its general election results by 5:00 p.m. on the seventeenth day after Election Day. Ga. Code Ann. § 21-2-499(b). And it requires the Governor to certify Georgia’s slate of presidential electors by 5:00 p.m. on the eighteenth day after Election Day. Id. Secretary Raffensperger’s deadline was November 20, and Governor Brian Kemp had a deadline of November 21.
To avoid these deadlines, Wood moved to bar officials from certifying the election results until a court could consider his lawsuit. His emergency motion reiterated many of the requests from his amended complaint, including requests for changes to the procedures for the January runoff. He also submitted additional affidavits and declarations in support of his motion.
The district court held a hearing on November 19 to consider whether it should issue a temporary restraining order. It heard from Wood, state officials, and two groups of intervenors. Wood also introduced testimony from Susan Voyles, a poll manager who participated in the hand recount. Voyles described her experience during the recount. She recalled that one batch of absentee ballots felt different from the rest, and that that batch favored Joe Biden to an unusual extent. At the end of the hearing, the district court orally denied Wood’s motion.
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