LAFAYETTE, IN — The recount for the GOP 23rd District senate race ideally will be finished before Independence Day, Recount Director Evan Norris said Monday morning.
Incumbent GOP Sen. Spencer Deery of West Lafayette won that race by three votes over challenger Paula Copenhaver of Covington.
Copenhaver last month filed for a recount. She alleged that several voters who typically vote in Democratic primaries and general elections switched parties and voted in the Republican primary. Copenhaver called those votes illegal and asked for subpoenas of 14 voters whom she identified through their social media posts or in news reports admitting to be Democratic voters.
Norris has not decided how the recount commission will address those subpoena requests.
“Our intent is to get this done by July 4, all three recounts,” Norris said, noting he also is directing the recounts for Indiana senate GOP primary for the 15th District and the GOP Indiana House race for the 57th District.
The actual recount has not yet been scheduled, Norris said.
“Starting on June 16 … we will issue those orders as soon as we’re able to coordinate with (State Board of Accounts) and state police on when we can do the actual recounts,” Norris said of the specific recounting of the ballots. “The intent is to do senate District 23 before we do any of the other districts.”
The recount teams spent Monday working in the Tippecanoe County Elections Office doing a pre-count inspection of the ballots for the Tippecanoe County portion of the 23rd District, which includes most of the western portion of Tippecanoe and Montgomery counties, as well as the northern part of Parke County and all of Warren, Fountain and Vermillion counties.
The precount inspections already have been completed in the other five counties, Norris said Monday morning.
The Deery/Copenhaver race caught national attention because Deery is one of only two incumbent senators who survived a challenger backed by President Donald Trump’s political machine. One incumbent won his election outright; Deery is locked in a too-close-to-call race; and five incumbents were defeated by Trump-backed candidates.
Five other state senators who faced Trump-backed challengers lost their bid for re-election.
The seven senators opposed by Trump voted in December against redistricting Indiana’s congressional districts to favor Republicans. The plan likely would have added two more GOP seats in Congress. Deery and six other GOP state senators voted against the redistricting.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Recount team in Lafayette for precount inspection of ballots
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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