New order: Answers to Copenhaver’s demand to subpoena voters will come after Senate Dist. 23 ballots recounted
Director sets July deadline for filings in losing candidate’s request to have 14 voters testify under oath about Indiana Senate District 23 Republican primary. Recount of ballots set to end by June 26
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NEW ORDER: ANSWERS TO COPENHAVER’S DEMAND TO SUBPOENA VOTERS WILL COME AFTER SENATE DIST. 23 BALLOTS RECOUNTED
A demand from Paula Copenhaver’s campaign to subpoena some voters and have them testify under oath about what ballots they took in a May 5 Indiana Senate District 23 Republican primary she lost by three votes will remain in play after a recount of ballots is done, according to an order issued Friday by the Indiana Recount Commission.
Evan Norris, a Zionsville attorney appointed recount director in the disputed contest between Copenhaver and state Sen. Spencer Deery, on Friday issued an order that gave both sides until June 26 to file any response or objection to the former Fountain County clerk’s accusation that 14 voters illegally crossed over to pull Republican ballots, then “boasted” on social media or to reporters that they’d done so just to upend her Trump-backed campaign.
The timelines laid out by Norris also gave the sides until July 6 to file replies to anything turned in by the June 26 deadline, according to the order shared with Copenhaver and Deery camps Friday. Norris gave similar schedules for Copenhaver filings about three of the 14 voters she initially challenged, only to have it pointed out that they lived outside the six-county Indiana Senate District 23.
Norris wrote that the Indiana Recount Commission eventually would hold proceedings dealing with the question about the voter subpoenas at the Tippecanoe County Office Building in downtown Lafayette.
No date was given for that hearing on Friday’s order. But Norris noted: “This does not impact the recount proceedings being held in June.”
So, a recount would be finished before the Indiana Recount Commission decides what to do about allegations that some ballots should be tossed.
Earlier in the week, Norris said the manual recount of votes in the Indiana Senate District 23 Republican primary would start June 16 and last until June 26.
The recount will have a State Board of Accounts team going county-by-county across the sprawling Senate District 23 for 10 days, starting in Tippecanoe County:
