By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
May 26, 2026
Within hours of being appointed as the new recount director, Indianapolis attorney Evan Norris issued orders granting the verified petitions for recounts filed in three contested Republican primaries and scheduling the pre-recount inspections.
The inspections will focus on narrowing the issues and election materials that are disputed, so the recount process can be conducted efficiently, according to the Indiana Recount Commission’s guidelines for election recounts. After the inspections, the tallying process begins with personnel from the Indiana State Board of Accounts, who will manually count the undisputed and disputed ballots.
According to the orders Norris filed with the Recount Commission on Tuesday, the inspection process will start Wednesday and continue through June 3 in Senate District 23, which covers six counties. The work will shift to Senate District 15, which is located within Allen County, on June 11 and 12. Then the procedure will conclude June 15 in House District 57.
Norris, a partner at Drewry Simmons Vornehm, was unanimously chosen by the Recount Commission on Tuesday to replace Jessica Dickinson, attorney with Massillamany Jeter & Carson, as recount director. Dickinson was appointed at the commission’s May 15 meeting, but she sent an email to commission members on May 21 resigning her position, effective immediately.
Dickinson did not explain her reason for stepping down in her email and did not respond to a request for comment. Likewise, Norris did not respond to a request for comment.
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, who also serves as chair of the Recount Commission, noted the urgency to get a new recount director in place. He told the commission members that the voting equipment and election materials having already been impounded.
“It is highly important that the recount director be employed and engaged to assist our county election administrators, (Indiana) State Board of Accounts, (Indiana) State Police and candidates to promptly proceed with the recount process today,” Morales said.
Petitions have been filed to recount the ballots cast in the Republican primaries for Senate District 15, in which incumbent Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, defeated challenger Darren Vogt by 14 votes, and for Senate District 23, in which incumbent Sen. Spencer Deery, R-Lafayette, squeaked by former Fountain County Circuit Court Clerk Paula Copenhaver by just two votes
Also, Greg Knott filed a recount petition in the GOP primary for House District 57, which includes portions of Hendricks, Johnson and Morgan counties. He fell 79 votes short and came in second to the winner, Wes Bennett, former town of Plainfield clerk-treasurer.
As recount director, Norris will oversee the process of verifying the election results in the contested races. The State Police will secure the voting machines and ballots and personnel from the SBO will do the actual review and recount of the ballots. Any disputed votes will be forwarded to the Recount Commission for a determination on their validity.
Morales told Norris to communicate with the candidates and the state and county election officials during the recount process and to update the Recount Commission on a weekly basis.
“My office staff, (Indiana) Election Division staff and the Indiana State Police and the State Board of Accounts are at your service to assist with recounts if they are filed,” Morales said to Norris. “I probably do not need to tell you that many, many Hoosiers, and certainly the candidates in the recount races, are anxious for recounts to be completed openly, fairly, and as promptly as reasonably possible.”
The orders from Norris set the time, date and location for the pre-recount inspections in the three contested GOP primaries for the state legislature.
Knott was one of four candidates vying for the GOP nomination in House District 57 to fill the legislative seat being vacated by Rep. Craig Haggard. Knott received 1,372 votes, trailing Bennett’s winning tally of 1,451 votes. The other candidates, Rob Stiles and Tina Turner, garnered 924 votes and 904 votes, respectively.
Haggard opted not to run for reelection to the Indiana General Assembly in order to challenge longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Baird in the Republican primary for the 4th Congressional District. The incumbent won in a landslide, capturing 60.5% of the vote to Haggard’s 30.5%.
In his petition, Knott is requesting a recount in 10 precincts in Hendricks County. None of the GOP candidates in the primary have had any attorneys file an appearance.
Vogt is seeking a recount in his loss to Brown in Senate District 15. He is represented by attorney James Ammeen Jr., of Ammeen and Associates in Indianapolis. No attorney has filed an appearance on behalf of Brown.
Copenhaver’s recount petition is questioning the validity of 14 votes cast by individuals in Senate District 23, who later acknowledged on social media that they had requested a Republican ballot solely to vote for Deery. State law prohibits so-called crossover voting, unless the voter cast a ballot for a majority of that political party’s nominees in the last general election or intends to vote for a majority of the nominees of the political party in the upcoming general election.
Also, Copenhaver is asking to conduct discovery into allegations that Deery’s vote total was increased by one vote a day after the May 5 primary without an official action by the Tippecanoe County Election Board. Finally, Copenhaver is requesting that all the individuals who participated in the Senate District 23 Republican primary be run through the federal government’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to verify their eligibility to vote.
Copenhaver is represented by attorney William Bock III, partner at Kroger Gardis & Regas in Indianapolis.
Attorney Samatha DeWester in Indianapolis has filed an appearance on behalf of Deery. DeWester successfully represented Alexandra Wilson in her fight to remain on the Republican ballot for the Senate District 38 primary.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org
