Wood questioned the basis for the suit on several grounds, including legal standing, but she also expressed concern that segregating ballots could prompt some potential voters not to cast them.

“We do have a risk of suppressing other voters from coming in,” the judge said. “I’m concerned on a number of levels with what it would mean to at this point switch course. … There might be voters who are confused about what it means to have your vote set aside for possible later questioning.”

Earlier in the session, the judge scoffed at a GOP lawyer who claimed that data from matching voter rolls showed voters had cast ballots in two different Senate races or were about to do so.

“The fact that someone voted in California, for example, in the November election and the fact they then vote in Georgia for the January election doesn’t prove that they voted for Senate twice,” said Wood, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “That is what Aristotelian logic tells us. That, by itself, it proves nothing.” (California did not hold a Senate election this year.)