by Kevin Killough
A Superior Court judge in Fulton County, Georgia, on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order that will allow a bipartisan observation of the state’s election-night operations center.
Georgia state GOP Sen. Greg Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor this year, filed a lawsuit seeking the court order.
Dolezal argued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had told the state election board through its chair that observers wouldn’t be allowed in the central location – known as “the bunker” – where the state receives, verifies and reports vote totals, Fox5 Atlanta reported.
Judge Ural Glanville said in his ruling that the petitioners demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their claims and that they’d suffer irreparable injury if relief isn’t granted.
The order states that Raffensperger is prohibited from restricting “designated poll watchers from observing the tabulation, aggregation, verification and reporting of election results” at the Secretary of State’s central office.
In reaction to the ruling, Dolezal said, “Bipartisan members of the State Election Board and poll watchers WILL be allowed inside Secretary Raffensperger’s “bunker” to observe tonight’s process. Transparency wins. The people of Georgia deserve honest, observable elections.”
Georgia primary elections will occur Tuesday night.
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Kevin Killough is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
