Banks denies Deery’s accusation, calls him a ‘sore loser’ after recount
Plus, a county clerk says over votes tossed out in Indiana Senate District 23: ‘Personally, I would have’ counted them. But, 'rules are rules.’
As of Thursday evening, state Sen. Spencer Deery had not filed a court challenge of Indiana Recount Commission decisions Monday that wiped out 10 votes and overturned his victory in the Indiana Senate District 23 Republican primary, handing it to challenger Paula Copenhaver.
Here are a few updates in the meantime.
BANKS RESPONDS TO DEERY’S QUESTIONS ABOUT IMPARTIALITY ON RECOUNT COMMISSION
With appeal waiting in the wings for the reversal of the Indiana Senate District 23 primary, state Sen. Spencer Deery on Thursday called out the connections of an Indiana Recount Commission member to key figures who were behind a dark money campaign designed to target Deery and other incumbent Republican senators.
The upshot: Deery challenged Paul Mullin, a Republican appointee to the three-member Indiana Recount Commission, to come clean on any correspondence he might have had with U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, who was a college friend, a former client and instrumental in Hoosier Leadership for America, which spent more than $1 million in a campaign to unseat Deery.
Mullin declined comment Thursday to Based in Lafayette.
But that afternoon, Banks responded, calling Deery “a sore loser” and that President Donald Trump-endorsed challenger Paula Copenhaver was declared the winner “after every legal vote was counted.”
“I have never spoken to members of the commission about Spencer Deery or his election challenger, but Spencer Deery is now blaming me and everyone else for his loss rather than his own weak record in the Indiana Statehouse,” Banks said in a statement.
“President Trump endorsed Spencer Deery’s opponent because of Spencer’s liberal, anti-Trump voting record — that’s why he lost,” Banks said, referencing Deery’s opposition to a mid-decade redistricting plan Trump wanted to help stock more Republican seats in the U.S. House. “If Spencer wanted to keep his seat in the state Senate, he should’ve done a better job fighting for his voters. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good state Senator, so his constituents gave him the boot. Spencer is a sore loser who’s throwing a temper tantrum instead of owning up to his poor record in office. I look forward to working with the voters’ choice, Paula Copenhaver, to help Hoosier families and make Indiana stronger.”
Here’s more, in this updated version of an edition that went out Thursday:
CLERK: ‘PERSONALLY, I WOULD HAVE’ COUNTED THOSE VOTES
As election officials assess technical errors that led to the Indiana Recount Commission tossing 10 votes – eight for Spencer Deery and two for Paula Copenhaver, enough to shift the Senate District 23 race to the challenger – two more county clerks across the six-county district weighed on what happened.
The technical errors led to the rejection of 10 ballots challenged – five in Montgomery County, two in Warren County, two in Vermillion County and one in Fountain County. No votes in Indiana Senate District 23 were tossed in the district’s other two counties, Tippecanoe and Parke.
In each case, the Indiana Recount Commission pulled the votes out of the Deery-Copenhaver totals, leaving votes in other races on those ballots because, they said, those races hadn’t been contested the way the one in Indiana Senate District 23 had.
That put the final count in the May 5 GOP primary at 6,332-6,329 for Copenhaver.
In Fountain County
One vote for Deery was rejected after Copenhaver’s attorney challenged a ballot that was missing what the state considers to be reliability indicators – including initials from two election workers, the county clerk’s seal and the county clerk’s signature – to guarantee their votes met state requirements.
Bill Bock, Copenhaver’s attorney, argued before the Recount Commission Monday that it needed a strict interpretation of the reliability indicators that were supposed to be present: “Indiana requires high standards to protect the integrity of absentee ballots because absentee ballots are more susceptible to fraud and potential manipulation.” Relaxing that standard, Bock argued, would “risk diluting voters” and, in this case, potentially swing the election.
Deery’s attorney, Samantha DeWester, called the prospects of tossing ballots for what amounted to a clerk’s error to be unprecedented. Deery called Recount Commission decisions, most on a 2-1 vote, to subvert the intent of the voters.
In Fountain County, the vote was part of a provisional ballot cast on Election Day and that the Fountain County Election Board had deemed valid in a review in the days after the election.
“We have step-by-step instructions for the workers to follow and we train them on these procedures,” Fountain County Clerk Patty Smith said Thursday. “Unfortunately, mistakes happen and steps are sometimes missed. Going forward, we will provide extra training on the provisional ballot procedure so hopefully this does not happen again.”
Smith said she would like Indiana lawmakers to “take a hard look at the laws concerning what is required on a ballot to make it viable.”
She said the three required reliability indicators – poll worker initials, a clerk’s seal and a clerk’s signature – are essential on mail-in ballots to “help safeguard our elections against fraudulent voting by mail.”
“Regarding early in-person voting or in-person voting on Election Day, I feel the Indiana election laws are somewhat antiquated,” Smith said. “Safeguards are already in place in today’s elections that use voting machines. If a voter shows photo identification, signs a pollbook – paper or electronic – is issued a code to vote on the county’s equipment, and then deposits the ballot in either a ballot box or a scanner, their ballot should count even if the two sets of initials are missing from the ballot.”
Still, Smith said: “Being a poll worker comes with great responsibility and we will continue to train all of our workers to be mindful of that responsibility when handling a voter’s ballot.”
In Warren County
If she had her way, Warren County Clerk Deb Hiatt said Thursday, she would have counted the two ballots rejected in her county, in each case because of a missing county clerk’s seal. Votes on both ballots had gone to Deery.
“Personally, I would have,” Hiatt said. “It was two mail ballots that our ladies, the only thing they forgot was the seal. It was human error, just an oversight. My ladies didn’t miss that in the intent of fraud. Or the voter. But I’m not the Recount Commission. And rules are rules – they’re there for a reason. …
“I just don’t want any voter to ever thing that their vote doesn’t count,” Hiatt said. “We have some work to do there.”
Earlier in the week, Montgomery County Clerk Sondra Sixberry told Based in Lafayette that the five ballots disqualified in her county by the Recount Commission – three for Deery and two for Copenhaver – came during early, in-person voting at the Montgomery County Government Center in Crawfordsville. She training would step up before the November general election.
“Was there ever any ill intent?” Sixberry asked. “No, but I will definitely reiterate to my coworkers that there’s a chance your best friend’s vote didn’t count, and you may have been the part of that problem. … If we disenfranchised voters, I definitely am disappointed with that, if that’s what happened.”
Tami Corado Lowry, the clerk in Vermillion County, where two votes for Deery were wiped out, did not immediately respond for comment this week. No votes in Indiana Senate District 23 were tossed in the district’s other two counties, Tippecanoe and Parke.
Secretary of State Diego Morales, who chairs the Indiana Recount Commission and oversees a state election division in charge of training election official, did not immediately respond to questions about what more his office could have done to prevent the errors in the primary or what would be done to fix the issues in the November general election.
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