INDIANAPOLIS – Four weeks after Indiana Democrats moved their state convention online, Republicans are doing the same.

Republicans had held off canceling their June 20 convention, even after Governor Holcomb’s coronavirus roadmap capped large gatherings throughout June. Party chairman Kyle Hupfer says while Republicans’ central committee had approved provisional rules for an online convention, he wanted to consult the committee at a Monday meeting before pulling the plug. He says along with the legal roadblock to bringing 18-hundred delegates together, several delegates were concerned about putting themselves or older colleagues at risk.

Hupfer says the party considered postponing the convention till later in the summer, or breaking it into simultaneous mini-conventions at multiple locations, but says the logistics just wouldn’t work.

Instead of meeting online on June 20, the party will livestream 90 minutes of speeches on June 18, from Governor Holcomb, Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch, and the three candidates for attorney general.

The voting on a nominee for attorney general, which normally would take place on the convention floor, will be held by mail, with the ballots to be returned to an outside accounting firm by July 9 and counted the next day.

Democrats also have a contested race for attorney general, but with just two candidates. The three-way Republican race among incumbent Curtis Hill, Decatur County Prosecutor Nate Harter, and Zionsville attorney John Westercamp adds a complication, because both party’s rules require a candidate to earn a majority of the votes cast.

The Republican ballots will ask delegates to specify their second choice. If no candidate gets a majority, there will be an instant runoff, with the last-place candidate’s votes reallocated to those voters’ second choice.

Hupfer says delegates have the option of refusing to mark a second choice. If their sole choice is eliminated, they simply won’t have a vote on a second ballot, and it’ll take fewer votes to get a majority. Hupfer says it’s no different from a traditional convention, where delegates sometimes go home if the voting drags on.