Paula Copenhaver Recount Fight Sparks Major Debate Over Indiana Primary Voting Laws and Election Challenges

Paula Copenhaver, as expected, officially requested a recount. And that’s okay. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. That’s totally fine. And I would do the same thing in her position, and so would every other candidate. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Paula Copenhaver Officially Requests Recount in Closely Contested Indiana Senate Race

But here’s where this gets silly and it’s already getting silly. Now keep in mind, as we told you, the election board, the Indiana Election Board is going to decide on a bunch of this stuff. And that election board is a Republican and a Democrat and Diego Morales. Diego Morales is going to make the deciding vote probably on a whole bunch of these things. That’s the last guy you’d want to be, you know, calling balls and strikes to be the umpire of your ball game. It’d be like if you were, you know, playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers and they told Shohei Ohtani he was going to be the umpire. It’s the very last guy you would want to have, to be fair. But he has said as of right now, he’s not stepping aside, even though he endorsed, he lined up with Turning Point USA and he is on board with all the Turning Point USA stuff. And he was for redistricting and he was a huge proponent of redistricting. And Paula Copenhaver is this close because of Turning Point USA and her ties to Trump, which is all about redistricting. Diego said, I’m not recusing. So he’s going to cast the deciding vote in a bunch of this. Here’s what Abdul wrote. And this is unbelievable that they’re going to do this, and we’ll get into it here in a second. In the petition is a motion asking the Indiana Recount Commission to subpoena 14 named voters and compel them to sit for sworn depositions about how they cast their ballot. This is the Copenhaver strategy. We’re going to take 14 people, and I believe for the first time in Indiana history, get someone’s vote invalidated, not because they voted in a wrong precinct, not because they’re not registered to vote, but because we don’t like they voted in a Republican primary. Now let me read you because Abdul went into legal mumbo jumbo on this. Let me read you what he wrote and then I’ll explain what they’re saying. The motion does not allege any error in the vote itself. Right. It’d be one thing to say, hey, we looked it up. This person does not live here, right? They didn’t vote in the right precinct. They aren’t registered to vote. The voter registration doesn’t. The place they voted doesn’t match the address. All of those things are fine, right? You can appeal those, and that’s okay. This is unprecedented. Instead, it argues that ballots cast by certain voters should be excluded from Deery’s total because those voters were not legally qualified to vote in the Republican primary under Indiana’s closed primary statute. The statute requires a primary voter to either have voted for a majority of that party’s nominees in the last general election, or to intend to vote for a majority of that party’s nominees in the next one. Well, good luck proving that.

Effort to Challenge Crossover Voters Could Create Major Election Law Precedent in Indiana

Let’s go back in the time machine, shall we? So basically what they’re saying is a bunch of Democrats crossed over. We think these 14 people crossed over as Democrats to vote in the Republican primary, and every one of their votes should be disqualified because they don’t intend to vote for a majority of the Republican nominees in the fall election. There’s zero way this should hold up. If it does, we’re done as a state because now you can start invalidating votes of people you don’t like. We don’t like you. We can invalidate your vote. How are you going to prove intent? And even if you can prove intent, let’s talk about what that means. Okay. In 2018, I interviewed Mike Braun when he was running for U.S. Senate, and one of the things that Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, who were his opponents, they were both congressmen, were hitting Braun on, was that he was not an actual Republican. He was a Democrat who switched over to Republican to win a state House seat. And they used, in part, his voting record of Democrat primary votes. And I interviewed and asked Braun about this. You know what Braun told me? He said, well, I voted for those people because when I did that, I knew that winner of that primary was going to be my local whatever, sheriff, council member, whatever. And he said, I was always a Republican, but I wanted to have a say in my local offices. That’s what he told me on the old Sunday show on WIBC. And at the time I said, look, I don’t know whether Braun was actually a Democrat or not. I don’t have any problem with this. If we’re going to gerrymander, districts and areas are going to be that all of one party are going to decide which is so much of our state. I had no problem with people crossing over to have a say in their local elections. I mean, you look at, take for example, Spencer Deery, Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, those local offices, most of them, some, many of them don’t even have competition in the general election. There’s not even a Democrat running. There’s a whole bunch of offices that if you want to have a say in that, you have to vote in a Republican primary. If this is allowed to stand, you’re essentially telling people you can’t vote on your sheriff, your county council, your city council unless you just happen to be 100% of the party that’s running because there’s no competition. You don’t get the right to vote. And what they’re going to say is the exact thing that our own governor freely admitted that he did. Well, that didn’t matter. But it matters when these people do it, the exact same thing, because we don’t like who won the election. Let’s go back to 2008. In 2008, there was an organized effort in the state of Indiana, initially put forth by Rush Limbaugh, but then embraced by very powerful Republicans in our state called Operation Chaos, in which Republicans were encouraged to cross over and vote for Hillary in the Indiana primary, to screw with Obama, to stop Obama. Thousands and thousands of Hoosiers openly did this. People were giving each other thumbs up in the lines when they were doing it, and Hillary barely, but it made all the difference, won Indiana in that primary. Now Obama, of course, won the overall election, but Hillary won Indiana’s primary because of Republicans who crossed over to vote. It wasn’t a secret. People were calling Rush’s show every day. Remember that, Jason? They were calling Rush’s show every day, giving their names, hearing their voices. Yeah, I did it. Yeah, yeah. Good job. Yeah. No one said a word. Certainly not the Republicans. They thought it was hilarious. They thought it was really funny, and they were all in on it. So they were fine again. They’re fine when their governor does it. They’re fine when, I mean, the Republicans not only elected Braun governor before they elected him a senator. That’s how unserious Republicans were about people voting in different primaries they weren’t really a part of. That’s how unserious they took that. But in 2008, there was an organized effort, including from some people who were even in the party hierarchy. This wasn’t some secret or some underground operation. It was a well-known thing. But now, because the Republicans are mad, the hierarchy. Braun and his friends are mad. I mean, look, Braun hasn’t said anything about this, but obviously he spent huge money behind these Turning Point USA candidates. We had Nikki Kelly on a couple weeks ago. She laid out through all of Braun’s PACs and these different funds he’s affiliated with, just how much money, if you could trace it all, went to these people. So clearly he was on board with these candidates. And I assume he wants Paula Copenhaver to win. The exact thing the governor did, now they’re going to try to overthrow an election. Now they’re going to try to overthrow an election. Get out of here. These people are shameless. They have no shame.

Republicans Face Criticism Over Double Standards on Primary Voting and Crossover Ballots

The evidence, according to Abdul, the evidence that the attorney for Copenhaver is going to cite comes almost entirely from public social media posts and a May 10th Substack column by Lafayette journalist Dave Bangert titled Did These Crossover Voters Save Indiana Senator Spencer Deery? According to the motion, 14 voters identified by full name and address. So they’re basically doxing these people now. Look at how crazy these elections get. Full name and address of these people out there publicly stated on Facebook or to Bangert directly. They were Democrats or independents who pulled a Republican ballot specifically to vote for Deery and had no intention of supporting Republicans in November. Okay, maybe they like Deery. You’re not allowed to vote for who you want, especially if there’s no opposition or viable opposition? What about Braun? Hey, when everybody says Braun’s got to stop being the governor, then I’ll believe we’re serious about this. Copenhaver attorneys argue the commission has authority under Indiana, and name the code, it doesn’t matter, to issue subpoenas that ballot secrecy under article two, because your ballot is yours, right? You’re allowed to do whatever you want to do with your ballot. It’s your ballot. You own it. Vote for whoever you want to vote for. And when you go up there and say, I want a Democrat ballot, they can’t question you on it, or I want a Republican ballot. They can’t question you on it. They say that the ballot secrecy under article two, section 13 of the Indiana Constitution does not shield voters who, by their own admission, cast illegal ballots. So I guess this is going to be the first test of the Diego BS express. Will Diego Morales condone or support putting legal voters under oath to get cross examined about who they voted for and why? If they do that, I want them to call Mike Braun to the stand and talk about his previous voting record under oath and who he voted for and why and why it’s okay for Mike Braun to do it, but not for these people. If we’re going to do that and we say we’re bringing Braun to the stand, too, then I’m more okay with this. You guys want to bet whether that happens or not? We’re one day into this thing and we’re already at, oh, hey, let’s call these people under oath to testify. Let’s grill them. Let’s put their name and addresses out there. Because what we’re going to say is the election hinges on these 14 people. These guys know exactly what they’re doing. We’re one day in and that’s where we’re already at. No way this can be allowed to stand. If it does, we’re done as a state.

Debate Over Closed Primaries and Taxpayer-Funded Elections Intensifies Across Indiana

And again, I just love the reaction from these top ranking Republicans is we must close off the primary. You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of several years ago, Ricker’s, the convenience store figured out how to legally sell cold beer. Do you guys remember this? Convenience stores are not allowed to sell cold beer, except Ricker’s, following all applicable rules and regulations, every code the state had by the letter of the law, they were in perfect compliance. They figured out a way, and I think it related to selling food and how they sold the food, etc. in their store, to legally sell cold beer. And Brian Bosma, who was the speaker of the House at the time, and David Long, who was the pro tem of the Senate, they sprinted to the nearest podium. Like I thought those guys were going to tear hamstrings. They were moving so fast and they were outraged because the liquor lobby is the most powerful. Maybe gaming, liquor lobby is the first or second most powerful lobby in the state of Indiana. And they were outraged, some might say, on behalf of the liquor lobby, that Ricker’s had figured out how to do this legally. And, you know, they were like, we got to change the rules, but you made the rules. Ricker’s abided by the rules that you put forth. You’re not mad we have crappy rules. You’re mad that Ricker’s abided by the rules you set forth. Same thing applies here. The Republicans and Democrats could solve this all tomorrow by simply saying, you know what? We are closing off our primaries and we’ll pay for them. I pay, I pay. They can fix this all tomorrow by saying, you know what? We’re closing off the primaries, we’re going to conventions, and we will monitor and we will enforce all of it, and we will pay for everything. But they’re not going to do that because that’s what the primaries are actually all about. Primaries are subsidized, taxpayer funded advertising for the parties. That is what the party is. It’s not even about picking candidates. It’s about millions and millions of dollars of subsidized advertising for these parties by the taxpayers. It’s why Ballard wants that 10% so bad. Or, and the people supporting Ballard, 2% doesn’t really do much of anything. It gets you on the ballot. But the libertarians are already on the ballot occupying third party space. The plan only works to take down the Republicans in the long run if you get that primary ballot access because of the millions and millions and millions of dollars of advertising. Because when you show up, the person will not have to ask you, do you want a Republican or a Democrat or a Lincoln Party ballot? That’s what this is all about. It’s all about money. And so to people like Micah Beckwith, who feign outrage over legal citizens voting legally, ask him, are you for Republicans? Any time he spouts his mouth on social media or whoever’s running the account for him, ask him. Do you believe Republicans should pay for their own elections? Are you willing to if we close off the primaries, because that’s what they want. They want everybody else to pay for their stuff. It’s perfect government. It’s everything that government is all about everywhere. I want you to pay for my advertising. I want you to pay for me to administer my elections. Then I want to bitch when the elections don’t go the way I wanted because people follow the laws that I had set up. So now we must change the laws. It’s all about authoritarianism. It’s about taking money from you and forcing you to pay for something that 80% of the people can’t even participate in. 80% of the people are ineligible to run for office as a Democrat or Republican. And the Republicans and Democrats take great pride in throwing undesirables off the ballot. And this nonsense that in order to vote in a primary, I must pledge some sort of blood oath to vote for whatever crappy candidates that the Republicans or Democrats put forward in the fall, that’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s totally on par for the course with the people who run our government.