HANCOCK COUNTY — Challenges to a Greenfield woman’s candidacies for a state position and a local one resulted in opposite rulings from the county and state.
It means she’s allowed to remain on the upcoming Republican primary ballot as a local state convention delegate candidate, but not as an Indiana House of Representatives contender.
The divided decisions stem from a new election rule that went into effect this year, one that also affected several other Hancock County candidates.
The challenge was one of several that Hancock County Republican Party chair Steven Leonard filed against 2022 primary candidates. For all of the challenges, Leonard listed his reason as the candidate has not voted in two previous GOP primaries.
A new Indiana law states that party affiliation for candidates is determined by which party they voted for in the last two primary elections in Indiana in which they voted, or an OK from their party’s county chair.
Leonard filed challenges against Vernon Township Board candidate Anthony Buechler, McCordsville Town Council at-large candidate Scott Jones, Fortville Town Council District 2 candidate Ryan Rummell and state convention delegate candidates Jeremy Ember, Meghan Carver and her husband, Steven Carver.
Leonard told the Daily Reporter in a statement that he submitted the challenges based on the new requirement and that none but Meghan Carver reached out to him for a sign-off, which he declined due to having no evidence of her voting in two Republican primaries.
The Hancock County Election Board, made up of county clerk Lisa Lofgreen, Democratic-appointed lawyer Bob Bogigian and Republican-appointed lawyer John Apple, was scheduled to hear the challenges on Feb. 17. The board heard Meghan Carver’s case first and voted unanimously to allow her to remain on the ballot as a state convention delegate.
The board heard Steven Carver’s case next, and he provided evidence of voting in two Republican primaries, leading the board to uphold his candidacy as well.
“Having previously spoken to the remaining four challenged candidates, all having told me similar accounts, acknowledging poor primary voting records, but supporting the Republican Party, I determined that based on the precedent set by the Hancock County Election Board there was no reason to challenge any further, thus I withdrew the remaining challenges,” Leonard said, adding that he feels the board’s decision regarding Meghan Carver was incorrect.
Leonard had also filed a challenge with the Indiana Election Commission over Meghan Carver’s candidacy for Indiana House of Representatives District 53, which includes much of Hancock County and is currently represented by Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield.
The day after the Hancock County Election Board meeting, the state election commission voted unanimously to uphold Leonard’s challenge over Carver’s statehouse bid. She will not appear on the ballot for that position.
During the state hearing, commission members discussed how Carver had registered to vote in Hancock County in 2004 and records indicate she’s voted in just one Republican primary since then — in 2016.
Beverly Gard, a Republican and former state senator who represented Hancock County, represented Leonard at the hearing. Gard said Leonard’s investigation revealed Carver had been registered to vote in Hendricks County before her registration in Hancock County, but that no record of her voting in a Republican primary there could be found.
Carver argued that the challenger has the burden of proof and that Leonard never proved she has never voted in two Republican primaries. She’s not required to prove she voted in two Republican primaries, she continued, only to attest to it.
Carver testified that she’s been a registered voter in Indiana since about 1988 and that she was registered to vote in Marion County between about 1988 and 1997. She said she tried to get her voting records from Marion County but learned records don’t go back that far.
Carver said she was registered to vote in Hendricks County from between about 1997 and 2004. That county could only find her voter registration card, she added, but no voting record.
Carver said she believes she voted in Republican primaries in 2004 or 2006, or possibly both.
The state election commission noted that before the implementation of the statewide voter registration system in 2006, no link existed between counties and that records were kept on paper in some counties until the mid- to late 1990s. It’s possible, the commission continued, that whatever paper record that might establish Carver’s past vote history was destroyed in accordance with record retention laws.
However, the election commission ultimately determined that no evidence exists that Carver voted in a Republican primary other than in 2016.
Before the recent two-primary rule change, party affiliation for candidates was determined by what party they voted for in the most recent primary election in Indiana in which they voted.
Apple, the Republican on the Hancock County Election Board, told the Daily Reporter that evidence required by the former rule was far easier to find. He thinks the new rule needs another look from the state legislature.
Apple added he felt Carver’s stance had merit.
“Frankly nobody knows what the standard is,” he said. “There’s a challenger and it seems to be the challenger has the burden to prove. … I think at the time we thought that the burden wasn’t quite met yet.”
Carver, a 1998 graduate of Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis, told the Daily Reporter in an email that she was pleased with the Hancock County Election Board’s response to the challenge against her state convention delegate candidacy.
“I was proud of our local lawyers when they upheld the rule of law,” she said.
She noted that during a challenge before hers at the state election commission hearings, commissioners said that the challenger has the burden of proof and dismissed the challenge.
“So I was profoundly disappointed when, in my case, they completely and wrongly reversed their understanding of the law and ignored the advice of their own attorney,” she said.
During the hearing, a commissioner said she recognized the similarities between Carver’s case and others that day, but felt Carver’s was distinguishable enough to merit upholding the challenge.
Carver said she feels the new rule sets out to protect “establishment Republicans” from grassroots ones and that the state needs to do a better job of maintaining voter records.
“The ability of the Republican party to keep a life-long, staunch Republican off the ballot is an appalling power-grab,” Carver said.
Also on the state election commission’s agenda for Feb. 18 was Henry County Republican Party chair Todd Hiday’s challenge against Heather Carie, who’s running for Indiana House of Representatives District 54, which includes Blue River Township in Hancock County. Hiday did not provide a reason for his objection on his challenge form, however, and did not attend the hearing. The election commission voted unanimously to deny the challenge and allow Carie to remain on the ballot.
Hancock County Democratic Party chair Linda Genrich filed a challenge with the county against Green Township Board candidate Andy Mohr over the new primary-voting rule and Mohr withdrew his candidacy.
