New recount director picked for review of two narrow Indiana Senate primaries

A new recount director is now in place to oversee the review of ballots in two Indiana state Senate primary races with razor-thin margins.

The bipartisan Indiana Recount Commission on Tuesday approved the hiring of attorney Evan Norris for the position in a 3-0 vote.

Norris replaces Jessica Dickinson, who submitted her resignation Thursday, less than a week after the commission approved her appointment on May 15.

Secretary of State Diego Morales, who by state law is the Recount Commission chairman, said voting equipment and election materials in the contested races had been impounded by state police, as is typical procedure for recounts.

“It is highly important that the recount director be employed and engaged to assist our county election administrators, State Board of Accounts, state police and candidates to promptly proceed with the recount process,” Morales said during Tuesday’s commission meeting.

Norris, a Republican, is in his first term as a Zionsville Town Council member after having won election in 2023. He is an attorney with the Carmel-based law firm Drewry Simmons Vornehm, where his firm biography says he specializes in representing owners and developers in construction litigation and construction law, including contract drafting and review. 

Prominent recounts requested include one between state Sen. Spencer Deery of West Lafayette and Fountain County Republican Chair Paula Copenhaver, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump because of Deery’s opposition to congressional redistricting last year.

Certified results in the Senate District 23 Republican primary showed Copenhaver trailing Deery by a three-vote margin — 6,337 to 6,334.

Copenhaver’s recount petition said the campaign had identified 14 people who disclosed in social media posts or to news reporters that they had voted in the Republican Senate primary despite being Democrats or self-identified “progressives.”

Possible recounts of tight state Senate races could extend into July

Copenhaver is seeking to question those voters under oath as to whether they abided by state law requiring primary voters to attest that they intend to support a majority of that party’s candidates in the general election.

Challenger Darren Vogt is also seeking a recount of the 15-vote margin by which he lost to Republican state Sen. Liz Brown of Fort Wayne in the Senate District 15 race.

Certified vote tallies for the district, which is entirely in Fort Wayne’s Allen County, gave Brown a lead of 5,241 to 5,226 over Vogt in the May 5 primary.

State Board of Accounts auditors are tasked with conducting the ballot reviews. State Examiner Paul Joyce, who heads up the Board of Accounts, has said it could take until late July to complete the recount reviews.