Indiana Dems don’t want GOP election official to oversee tight primary recount

By Jen Rice

Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales attends a podium discussion at the third Hungarian edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC Hungary, in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, April 26, 2024. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP)

Indiana Democrats are calling on their state’s anti-voting Secretary of State Diego Morales (R) to recuse himself from overseeing the recount process for a close state senate primary election between a Republican incumbent and a challenger supported by President Donald Trump.

They say Morales can’t be trusted because he’s effectively backed the challenger.

Last year, a group of Indiana Republicans incurred Trump’s wrath when they voted down his redistricting plan. In response, the president vowed to support primary challengers to those who didn’t back his scheme. 

Ultimately, most of those incumbents lost their primary races. But state Sen. Spencer Deery won his primary against Paula Copenhaver, a local GOP party chair. However, the margin was extremely slim — Deery pulled ahead by just three votes. 

Now, with a recount in the works, Democrats are saying Morales shouldn’t be allowed to oversee the process.

“Diego Morales has proven he can’t stay impartial as our Secretary of State,” the Indiana Democratic Party posted on social media Monday. “With at least one possible recount involving a Turning Point USA-backed candidate that Morales supports, he needs to let someone else chair the Recount Commission.”

Morales is an election denier who has claimed the 2020 presidential election outcome was “questionable” and a “scam.” He’s also on the ballot himself this year. 

And Indiana is just one of several states where anti-voting activists are campaigning to run future elections. 

Copenhaver filed a request for a recount Monday, claiming to have “documented evidence of illegal voting by unqualified voters” in the primary.

Morales is now set to chair the three-member Recount Commission, and Democrats are pushing back.

State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D) called on Morales to remove himself from the recount process because he “has deeply involved himself” with Turning Point USA, a leading right-wing political action group that worked to elect Copenhaver. 

Morales also spoke in support of the controversial redistricting plan at a rally last year. 

“Zero hesitation, zero backing down — because the stakes are too high,” he told the crowd. “Show up. Stand up for fair maps. Stand up for President Trump and our Hoosier State.”