Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales said today that he will chair the state Recount Commission in any recount stemming from the 2026 primary election, rejecting calls from a Democratic lawmaker that he recuse himself.
Morales made the statement at the close of a Recount Commission meeting in which the commission appointed a recount director and adopted Order 2026-04. A fellow commissioner referenced recent news reports questioning the commission’s independence and invited Morales to respond on the record.
“Should there be one, I am the chief election officer,” Morales said. “This is my duty, my responsibility, and I will be chairing the recount commission, and it is an honor to be the Secretary of State.”
Morales said the meeting was being livestreamed and noted that any future recount proceedings would also be conducted in public.
“Should there be any recount filed, we will be holding those meetings transparently for the public to see,” he said.
Under Indiana law, the Secretary of State serves as chair of the Recount Commission, which decides disputed ballot questions and oversees the tallying of votes by the State Board of Accounts.
As of today, no recount petitions had been filed from the 2026 primary, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. However, two Republican Senate primaries remain close enough that recount petitions are considered possible: the Senate District 23 race between state Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, and challenger Paula Copenhaver, and a second contest involving state Sen. Liz Brown.
Morales’ comments came one day after Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, called on him to recuse himself from any recount in the Deery-Copenhaver race. In that contest, Deery leads by no more than three votes following the counting of provisional ballots. Copenhaver was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
DeLaney cited Morales’ public support for midcycle legislative redistricting — a central issue in the Deery-Copenhaver contest — and his ties to Turning Point USA, which endorsed Copenhaver.
“Diego Morales has persistently undermined our confidence in elections and the integrity of his office,” DeLaney said in a statement Wednesday. “I’m asking him to step aside from any recount involving Sen. Deery.”
Morales’ office responded to DeLaney’s call before today’s meeting. Lindsey Eaton, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office, told the Indiana Citizen that Morales would not step aside.
“The Secretary of State has no intention of stepping away from the Constitutional and statutory duties of his office,” Eaton said.
The recusal request is the latest in a series of controversies involving Morales. In March, the Marion County Election Board voted unanimously to refer Morales to the State Inspector General over a campaign video that the board alleged used footage shot at the county’s election center. The board also banned Morales from non-public areas of the facility. Morales’ campaign called the allegations “meritless” and the investigation “transparently political.”
This week, voting-rights advocates also criticized Morales over a trip to Washington, D.C., where his office said he met with federal officials to discuss election integrity and attended a White House celebration of the Indiana University championship football team. His office said no taxpayer money was used for the trip.
Morales, a Republican, faces a crowded field as he seeks renomination at the state Republican convention. He will not be among those casting a ballot for himself in his home delegate district: in Marion County’s Republican State Delegate District 02 primary, where voters elected six delegates to the state convention, Morales finished 12th out of 18 candidates with 264 votes, or 3.55 percent — well short of the top-six threshold needed to qualify as a delegate.
