A judge presiding over a lawsuit claiming election fraud in Georgia’s presidential election has ordered the state to hold off on plans to erase or reset voting machines that were used in three counties, Politico reports.
The suit is one of two filed by Texas attorney Sidney Powell, who was recently dismissed from President Donald Trump’s campaign legal team. The hearing, which was apparently not open to the press or public, reportedly concerned allegations made about voting equipment from Dominion Election Systems.
“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,” wrote U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr., an appointee of President George W. Bush.
Politico notes that “Batten’s nighttime order came after confusion earlier Sunday when one of Powell’s co-counsels, Georgia attorney Lin Wood, posted on the internet what he described as two other orders issued by the judge.
“In those directives, Batten initially appeared to impose a statewide ban on clearing voting machines, then said he couldn’t do that because of the issue about the counties not being named as defendants in the suit.”
The order that Batten actually issued applies to only three counties, and a separate order issued on Monday morning shows that a hearing on the matter is scheduled for this Friday.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.