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(Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Saturday rejected an offer by a conservative lawyer to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, leaving procedures in place that will make it easier for voters to cast their absentee ballot in January, when two remain. seats in the Senate. in Game.
Federal District Judge Steven Grimberg, who was nominated by Trump, rejected the arguments of attorney L. Lin Wood and found in a Nov. 20 opinion that the attorney had no standing to sue.
The US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed with the lower court, saying that Wood had not “alleged a particular injury” and the request was moot anyway since Georgia had already certified the election.
“We cannot host post-election contests on various issues of vote counting and misconduct that can be properly presented in state courts,” the appeals court said in its ruling.
The ruling also means Georgia officials will need to notify absentee voters so they can fix problems with their ballot in the next US Senate election.
On January 5, Georgia holds a runoff to its two US Senate seats, which will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the chamber.
Wood sought to overturn a lower court judge who refused to stop Georgia officials from certifying Biden’s state election.
The appeals court ruling was decided by a panel of three judges, two of whom had once been considered by US President Donald Trump for US Supreme Court positions.
It’s another setback for Trump’s supporters in their risky attempt to reverse Biden’s victories. They have suffered legal losses in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All of these states have already certified their election results.
Wood’s lawsuit claimed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger violated state law in March when he reached an agreement with the Democratic Party to settle a lawsuit over 8,157 ballots that were thrown out in the 2018 general election.
Under the agreement, officials added levels of review before rejecting signatures on absentee ballots and were asked to notify voters of absentee ballot defects.
(Report by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Makini Brice in Washington; Additional Report by Jan Wolfe in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Chizu Nomiyama)
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