Democrats challenge ballots in recount

Lafayette - "We're being delayed a little bit. The representatives are wanting to look at signatures on pole cards and that has been very time consuming," said Williams.

Williams said the State Board of Accounts is sorting through 30,000 Election Day, blue and greens cards. Bill Bock, who stands as counsel for Randy Truitt, said thousands of those are in question. He said the move is not needed.

"This frankly is one of the cleanest elections that I have seen. However, the Polles camp has challenged over 20,000 votes and are attempting to throw out the valid votes of most of the people that voted in the district," said Bock.

One of those rejected votes included Tippecanoe County Superior Court Judge Michael Morrissey. He said his disputed signature from Election Day may look different from his signature on file at the Clerk's office. That's because he signed the voter registration card 35 years ago. Bock said despite the challenges from the Democrats Truitt will win.

"We're fighting to make every vote count and not allow this process to disenfranchise voters," said Bock.

A volunteer with the Democratic Party said verifying signatures is state statue. Bock said Indiana Code does not specify signature verification for vote centers. Bock also charges that Polles' campaign wants to count provisional ballots that were rejected by the election board because the voter lives or was not registered in District 26.

"They have marked them as exhibits and generally that means they would like them opened. I think, he's 26 votes behind, so he's looking for votes even outside the district to make up that margin," said Bock.

The State Board of Accounts will present its final analysis of the recount to the Recount Commission Saturday.