Hearing on Candidates Challenged by Republican Party

 Hearing on Candidates Challenged by Republican Party 

THERE IS A YOU TUBE VIDEO OF THIS MEETING CLICK BELOW ( THANKS TO UNCLE SAM MORTENSON FOR PROVIDING THE VIDEO. NOTE THAT THE CHALLENGERS WILL NEED TO HAVE VOLUME INCREASED TO HEAR THEM CLEARLY. 

https://youtu.be/LZQZSYRnpTU?si=7wJTYyteyQt-ZXa3

2 March 2026 10 AM

Citizens present: Tamara Taylor, Jim Thatcher, Jeff Cotton, Bobby Rauen, Alan Thorup (GOP Chairman for Dearborn County), Kathy Prarat, Joe Volk, Glenn Wright, James Gabbard, Sam Mortenson, and Danessa Mortenson.

Election Board Members: Jared Ewbank ( Republican), Wendy Beatty, County Clerk, and Peggy Clapp (Democrat)

Jared Ewbank was made chairman of this meeting,

Set the rules for the meeting procedure. People will be sworn in.

Challenger- Alan Thorup- chairman of DC GOP. Filed 3 challenges. Elected 3/1/25. Retired mortgage banker and volunteers for Meals on Wheels. He is one of the officers of the GOP and the others are present and agreed to the challenges. 

Ewbank swore Thorup in

David Baumgartner - per Thorup had to vote in 2 primaries. He only voted in one primary. He agreed with the challenge and is not present. Rule 1-24 is the challenge. He did not ask Thorup for a verification instead. 

James Gabbard- per Thorup- 2024 Republican 2016 as Democrat. There have been email communications to to Gabbard.  Gabbard was present and did not wish to fight the challenge. 

Sam Mortenson- per Thorup- He is not challenging Sam Mortenson as he has an excellent Republican record. He has met Sam 5 times. Two issues- one is technical- He put in Uncle Sam and nothing else. He reached out to other party members. He got a printout about printing names on the ballot.  It addresses how the nickname should be printed. He thinks voters need know who they are voting for. The rule does not apply to candidates for precincts committeeman or delegate per info from Wendy Beatty. Practical honest opinion- is that the people know Uncle Sam as 

39,000 plus are registered to vote in Indiana. Uncle Sam for Indiana and his Facebook page have 7,000 plus followers. 

88 people filed and 87 used their actual names. Similar with the Democrats filed. 

He said a website search does not produce Uncle Sam. It would be misleading regardless of who used that name. 

He wouldn’t allow the parenthesis around them nickname either. 

Sam Mortenson was sworn in. Code is to how the clerk files this.

Unequal justice .

He challenged the all caps - only 3 candidates registered like that.

Uncle Sam for 20 years

Strangers know him by Uncle Sam. Cited an instance. Others out of the county. Then cited more instances. 

Unequal justice.- technical  issue on one- then do it on all candidates. 

He will file it correctly from now on.

He was told by clerk it was ok.

There were numerous candidates who do not file properly by the law. He does not want to challenge them but….

This does not apply to delegates or precinct committeemen per the law. 

Wendy Beatty - Agreed that the one code also said the rules were different for delegates and precinct committeemen. I called the Indiana Election Commission and this is going to change the form for 2028.

Sam also said it is important to GROW  the party not PICK the party. 

Joe Volk- sworn in- Talked about how the state level sign in experience was. He cited what happened this year when a 17 year old signed up here in the county - he was allowed in without any voting record and not challenged. It takes courage to sign up. The door opens when the GOP lets some in and they close others out. The laws are there, The party chooses to do it or not. This is disturbing to me- what is going on here. Ewbank extended his time. This happened 2 years ago too - Mark Dole was GOP chair and Volk’s wife was challenged.Common people should run the government not just the establishment.

Bobby Rauen- sworn in.- I did not know Uncle Sam 2 months ago. We have an issue out in Manchester Township with solar farms. Uncle Sam shared his group and contact list with us to help us with the solar issue. People in this county DO know Sam Mortenson as Uncle Sam.

Sam Mortenson- Clarified the law allows discretion for the GOP chair. This grievance has been going for a long time. When this law was passed. They passed this law about 2 primaries needed to prevent Dems for going over as Republicans. The law does say that the chair has discretion. But we are defaming the party by doing this. He showed examples of current Republicans that were former Democrats even at state level. He wants a strong Republican party- and I disagree with these other being removed. If these games continue to be played , grassroots may start voting Democrat.

Ewbank- You do agree this board needs to uphold the law?

Sam Mortenson- Yes!

Al Thorup- got up to say why he allowed Lucas Preston to  run as a 17 year old. He  went on in detail and enumerated all the things he did for the party. He said very few people had a resume like this young man- Lucas Preston. 

JIm Thatcher - sworn in- there is a lot of info that can strengthen the candidate law. He would be OK if he wrote Uncle Sam for Indiana. He insisted that he never used Uncle Sam on Facebook.

Sam Mortenson- Uncle Sam for Indiana  I believe is more than 20 letters. (18) He said he is NOT Uncle Sam for Indiana- that’s just how he used it on social media. He said again that he was OK with correcting it. On the ballot. Samuel  (Uncle Sam) David Mortenson.And Mr Thatcher should have all his last name capitalized not mixed up caps and not. 

Jared Ewbank- Cited code for the form.- 3-10-1-14

Sam Mortenson did in fact fill out the form correctly in parts

He also said the form allowed him to put the nickname in.

Legitimate challenges made by Republican chair of the county. And he went on about he detail of the code. 

Sam Mortenson- Uncle Sam appeared in the boxes on the form where a nick name could be used.

Peggy Clapp Dem Party Rep- Given opportunity- but you refused

Wendy Beatty if we accept the challenge, then his name does come off the ballot

Has spoken to state election commission and this will be fixed.

Jared Ewbank- this is a spiral into other problems written in the law. There is a law in point but it is buried. Cited Abe Lincoln- Best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. This board is a “democracy first “ board. We are bound by these rules and strictly enforce this law. 

Code 3-10 is clear as a bell- so we HAVE to accept the challenge. I hope Mortenson continues to run again. 

The 3 person Board accepted the challenge- Samuel (Uncle Sam) David Mortenson is OFF the ballot for delegate. 

Danessa- Mortenson- sworn in- Thankful that the others weren’t challenged on this code or there would have been 50 more. If we looked back at Candidate forms. In my opinion.

Ewbank read through the code and noted that the nickname goes in parentheses etc. He thinks if Mr Volk gets elected - he should get these laws fixed to be less ambiguous. The noted that the language has a job for the clerk as to capitalize names and then that candidate has other rules. 

Adjourned 11:10 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township