The Indiana Recount Commission on Monday flipped a Republican primary race in favor of a President Donald Trump-endorsed challenger over a state senator who opposed Indiana congressional redistricting.
The commission’s decisions on challenged ballots turned what had been a three-vote lead for Sen. Spencer Deery of West Lafayette into a three-vote margin for challenger Paula Copenhaver.
The new certified totals from the May primary now give Copenhaver 6,332 votes to Deery’s 6,329.
The commission threw out eight votes for Deery and two for Copenhaver — all largely for technical reasons over missing signatures or initials from county election officials on absentee ballots.
Deery’s attorney said she planned a quick appeal to the state Court of Appeals.
“This is unprecedented,” attorney Samantha DeWester said after the commission’s vote. “Ballots don’t get tossed for a signature missing from a clerk. It’s now going to set the tone going forward for people that are losers of elections that want to overturn them on technicality stuff. I mean, they just disenfranchised a bunch of voters.”
The Deery-Copenhaver race is the last one undecided from the Republican primary in which Trump-endorsed challengers defeated six of the seven other incumbent senators targeted by the president in retaliation for their votes against redistricting.
Copenhaver, the Fountain County Republican chair and staffer to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, said she was confident her primary victory would stand.
“I think there was a mandate throughout the whole state regarding the redistricting, and what I have found is that a lot of people are afraid to vocalize their position,” Copenhaver said. “They don’t speak up for fear of retribution. I’m not afraid.”
The Deery-Copenhaver winner will face Democratic West Lafayette City Councilman David Sanders and independent candidate Joshua Brant in the November election for the heavily Republican district, which spans all or parts of six counties in the area between Lafayette and Terre Haute.
This story will be updated.
Originally published on indianacapitalchronicle.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.