The Indiana Recount Commission rejected a request to question voters under oath about how they cast their ballots in what is now a three-vote margin from May’s Republican primary for a state Senate seat.
The commission’s 2-1 vote was a setback to Paula Copenhaver’s challenge to Sen. Spencer Deery’s lead following a rancorous campaign in which she had President Donald Trump’s endorsement because of Deery’s opposition to the congressional redistricting plan pushed last year by the president.
The recount outcome, however, is not decided as the commission will meet again Aug. 18 to take up possibly more than 300 ballots the two sides have disputed.
Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales, the commission’s chair, sided with Democratic member Michael Claytor in voting to deny Copenhaver’s subpoena request.
Republican member Paul Mullin supported her motion to question 11 voters who disclosed in social media posts or to news reporters that they had cast Republican primary ballots to support Deery despite being Democrats or self-identified “progressives.”
Morales said in voting against the subpoena request that it wasn’t proper to question voters after they had cast ballots.
“This is the right thing to do, to make sure that we reject the motion to subpoena any voters because I don’t believe that’s the right thing to do,” Morales said. “I believe everybody has the right to go and vote, but they need to do it the right way. And the right way, again, is I encourage the General Assembly next session to close our primaries so we can avoid all of this.”
Copenhaver, the Fountain County Republican chair and staffer to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, said she intended to keep up the recount fight.
“Every Republican that voted in this Republican primary in this district should be upset to know that there were Democrats who voted in the Republican primary with no intention to support (the) Republican Party in the fall,” she told reporters after the commission meeting.
The ballot challenging process will continue, but Recount Director Evan Norris told the commission that a ballot review by State Board of Accounts auditors came up with no changes from the certified results that show Deery leading by a 6,337 to 6,334 margin.
The Deery-Copenhaver winner will face Democratic West Lafayette City Councilman David Sanders in the November election for the heavily Republican Senate District 23, 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.
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