Paula Copenhaver, whom President Donald Trump backed for Indiana Senate District 23, is asking the state’s recount commission to subpoena voters in the tight race. The petition accuses some Democrats of improperly voting in the Republican primary race.
The majority of the claims made in the petition to contest the election results revolve around 14 voters whom Copenhaver and her lawyers accuse of “crossing over.” Meaning when voters of one party intentionally pull the opposite party's ballot during a primary election to influence the outcome.
Their accusation is based on social media posts and reports in news stories that some of these supposed voters said they usually vote democrat but wanted to vote against the “MAGA challenger.”
The petition says these ballots should not be counted because Indiana law requires voters to vote in the Republican primary only if they voted Republican in the last general election or intend to support most Republican candidates in the future.
However, Indiana doesn’t require voters to register with either party, so there is virtually no way to enforce this law unless voters are challenged at the polls, said Elizabeth Bennion, professor of political science at IU South Bend.
Bennion said, historically, the Indiana Recount Commission has mostly served as an auditing body to count ballots and inspect machines to determine whether an error occurred in a close election.
“It has not been used to haul individual legally registered voters into depositions to cross-examine them over their social media posts, so this is not a standard recount request. It is unprecedented,” Bennion told WFYI.
The petition states that ballot secrecy should not apply to the case of the 14 voters because they already publicly admitted to “crossing over”. Copenhaver’s team argues that ballot secrecy should only protect lawful voters, not unlawful ones.
“When the illegality of a vote is established, the voter may be compelled to state how he cast his illegal vote,” the petition says.
Incumbent state senator Spencer Deery (R-West Lafayette), who currently holds a three-vote lead over Copenhaver, said in a statement Tuesday that some of the voters Copenhaver wants to subpoena didn’t even cast ballots in this race.
He also contends that some of the voters have voted Republican in previous primaries and some alternated between Republican and Democratic ballots over decades.
“Candidates have a right to request a recount of election results,” Deery said. “That is not a license to intimidate voters or to rewrite election laws after the results are in, or to ignore basic facts.”
Indiana’s unenforceable primary election law
Bennion said that to challenge these voters on the grounds stated in the petition, the challenge would have had to occur at the polling place before the ballot was cast.
“I think one of the issues here is that we have a law that's unenforceable, it sets a standard, but provides no post-election criminal penalties for a voter who walks through the door that essentially the state left completely unlocked,” Bennion said.
Indiana’s modified open primary system has led certain activist groups to take advantage of this confusing process. In 2024, the group ReCenter Indiana posted billboards across the state urging Democrats to vote in Republican primaries.
Republicans have also been known to take advantage of Indiana’s primary laws. In 2008, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh conducted “Operation Chaos,” where he urged Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the presidential primary.
Indiana lawmakers have tried in the past to “close” the state’s primary elections and force Hoosier voters to register with a political party. Those efforts have never made it to a final vote.
Bennion worries that this challenge could have a chilling effect on voter participation in primary elections, which already has a dismal voter turnout rate in Indiana.
“That is another concern, is that voters may become confused or intimidated about going for fear that they will be challenged at the polls, even if there's no legitimate reason to do so,” Bennion said.
And in supermajority states like Indiana, primary elections are often the most consequential, as many seats in the general election now go uncontested, Bennion said.
Other election recounts requested around the state
The Senate District 15 race between incumbent Sen. Liz Brown (R-Fort Wayne) and her challenger, Darren Vogt, is currently separated by only 15 votes.
Vogt has now filed a recount petition, calling into question Allen County’s ballot-counting process and partially citing technical glitches that prevented the final vote tallies from being revealed until the day after the primary election.
The House District 57 race is also seeking a recount, but for only 10 specific precincts in Hendricks County, the Indiana Secretary of State’s office told WFYI.
That race had four candidates running in the Republican primary: Wes Bennett, Greg Knott, Tina Turner and Rob Stiles. The two front-runners of the race, Wes Bennett and Greg Knott, are only separated by 78 votes, with Bennett in the lead, according to election results.
Next steps for recount commission
Now the Indiana Recount Commission is in the process of ordering the Indiana State Police to impound all election materials related to the recount petitions from now until May 26th.
In the next few days, the Indiana State Board of Accounts will establish audit teams to conduct a pre-inspection of the impounded materials and coordinate with county election administrators to set dates for the recounts. Those dates have not been set yet, but the recounts are public sessions, according to the Secretary of State's office.
The recounts for the individual counties may take weeks, the office said.
Once the county recounts are finished, another public meeting will be held with the Indiana Recount Commission to hear reports from the state board of accounts. Then the commission will typically hold hearings to address an election contest or challenges once the recount process is finished.
Copies of filings and meeting notices will be posted at the recount commission’s website.
Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org
