One clerk in flipped Senate District 23: ‘If we disenfranchised voters, I definitely am disappointed’
With votes tossed for election official errors and a race reversed, a county clerk says voters had a duty, too. But to poll workers: ‘There’s a chance your best friend’s vote didn’t count'
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ONE CLERK IN FLIPPED SENATE DISTRICT 23: ‘IF WE DISENFRANCHISED VOTERS, I DEFINITELY AM DISAPPOINTED’
A clerk in one of four counties where a total of 10 votes in the state Senate District 23 Republican primary were wiped out Monday by the Indiana Recount Commission over missing election official initials or signatures – effectively flipping a three-vote margin for state Sen. Spencer Deery to a three-vote win for challenger Paula Copenhaver – said voters shared a duty to make sure ballots met state requirements.
Montgomery County Clerk Sondra Sixberry said this week that poll workers were trained about how to mark and sign the five early absentee ballots from her county that wound up being rejected by the Recount Commission as insufficient, after being disputed by Copenhaver’s legal team.
She said notices at the early polling site at the Montgomery County Government Center in Crawfordsville also listed that voters needed to make sure their ballots included 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.
In Montgomery County’s case, a mix of missing poll worker initials or the stamp of clerk’s signature election staff were supposed to put on five ballots – three for Deery and two for Copenhaver – were enough to get votes tossed Monday by the Indiana Recount Commission.
How did that happen?
“In my position, you’re always second guessing what could we have done to prevent it,” Sixberry told Based in Lafayette Wednesday. “We put reminders on the tables. We’ve got reminders for all the poll workers. We remind them every day. The reality is, we have folks that are 70-plus-years-old doing this. And often what I see happen at a polling location, especially early vote, friends are reunited and we start talking instead of doing the job we came to do. …
“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.”
In Copenhaver’s case to the Indiana Recount Commission this week, Bill Bock, an attorney with the Indianapolis-based firm Kroger Gardis & Regas who worked on behalf of President Donald Trump in a challenge of Wisconsin election results in 2020, leaned heavily into mistakes in how absentee ballots – including early ballots cast in person ahead of the May 5 Primary Election Day – were handled by election workers.
