By Donald
A Georgia judge just told Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that he cannot lock observers out of the room where election results are received, aggregated, and reported to the public.
Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville signed a temporary restraining order on the eve of Georgia’s May 19 Republican primary, forcing Raffensperger to admit properly designated poll watchers and Georgia State Election Board observers into the Election Night Reporting Room.
The facility, also known as the Emergency Operations Center, is the nerve center where county-level results flow in, get verified, and are ultimately reported statewide.
Three Republican petitioners brought the emergency action: State Senator Greg Dolezal, U.S. House candidate Chris Mora, and Cobb County Commissioner Keli Gambrill.
All three argued that Georgia law guarantees transparency at every stage of the election process, and that Raffensperger’s office had no authority to bar credentialed observers from the room.
As The Gateway Pundit reported:
Chief Judge Ural Glanville signed a temporary restraining order granting bipartisan members of the Georgia State Election Board and poll watchers access to Raffensperger’s Election Night Reporting Room.
The room is the secure emergency operations facility where statewide vote totals from Georgia’s 159 counties are aggregated and prepared for public release on primary night.
Raffensperger’s office had resisted access requests while arguing that ballots themselves are not counted inside the facility.
The petitioners, however, argued that the reporting, aggregation, and verification process is still part of election administration and should be open to properly designated observers.
That is the heart of the fight: if the public is expected to trust the statewide reporting process, then observers should not be kept outside the door while results are flowing in.
The timing made the order even more important because Georgia voters were already heading into a live primary night.