Deery’s lead trimmed to 2 in Senate District 23. In play: 3 uncounted ballots
Challenger Paula Copenhaver gets three additional votes to Deery’s one as Fountain and Montgomery county election boards certify May 5 primary results.
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DEERY’S LEAD TRIMMED TO 2 IN SENATE DISTRICT 23. IN PLAY: 3 UNCOUNTED BALLOTS
State Sen. Spencer Deery’s lead over challenger Paula Copenhaver was trimmed to two votes Monday, after election boards in two of the six counties in Indiana Senate District 23 certified results in a tight, contentious, Trump-fueled race for the Republican nomination.
Copenhaver picked up three votes Monday, between Fountain County and Montgomery County.
Deery, who went into the day with a four-vote lead, receive one additional vote in a race where spending was estimated at $3 million, including where allies of President Donald Trump poured more than $2 million into a dark money campaign to unseat the first-term West Lafayette Republican.
What’s left: Three remaining provisional ballots in two counties in the expansive Senate district, including in Tippecanoe County, are scheduled to be considered and counted by election boards before a Friday afternoon deadline to certified results of the May 5 primary.
Monday was key in a race where both candidates declared victory – or predicted it – on Election Night but, on paper, remains unresolved.
“Isn’t this fun?” Copenhaver, a former Fountain County clerk now working in Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s office, said Monday. “(Two) hearings down and (two) to go. I still have peace and I stand by my statement from Election Night.”
Here’s what she said that night from her home in Covington, moments after Deery declared victory in front of supporters at the Tippecanoe County Office Building: “After all provisional ballots are counted, we will prevail and be declared the winner of this race. I want to thank President Donald Trump for his unwavering support and endorsement. President Trump is the leader of our party, and it showed clearly tonight in his victories across the state.”
Asked Monday about whether she was prepping for a recount, as the number of uncounted ballots waned, Copenhaver said she’d wait to answer that question until the results were certified this week.
Deery said the headline of the day was that Copenhaver only got a one-vote swing in her home Fountain County, when eight ballots wound up in play before the election board there.
“On the whole this is good news, especially considering the limited number of provisional votes still outstanding,” Deery said. “I am grateful to the public servants and volunteers who make sure our elections and the vote counting follow the law and maintain the people’s trust.”
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The race was one of seven targeted by Trump against incumbent state senators who objected or didn’t get on board with a White House plan to redraw Indiana’s congressional districts to give Republicans a better shot at picking up seats in the U.S. House during the 2026 midterm elections. Deery was outspoken in his opposition to the idea of mid-decade redistricting. Trump endorsed Copenhaver, recruited to run against Deery.
Of those seven races, one state senator – Greg Goode of Terre Haute – one in last week’s primary. Five other were beaten soundly. Deery is barely hanging on.
Here’s how Monday’s tallies played out.
In Fountain County: In her home county, where she is the county GOP chair, Copenhaver picked up two votes. Deery added one.
Of the three votes counted, one was a mail-in ballot that had arrived without a proper signature but had been resolved by the voter in time to be counted, Fountain County Clerk Patty Smith said. The other two were provisional ballots were validated and counted by the three-member election board, after they had been cast by voters challenged at the polling site because they didn’t appear on voter registration rolls. Smith said that one case was caused by an error when scanning the voter’s driver’s license. The other was caused by an error by voter registration staff who had removed a voter who registered in 2023 when they were 17 and should have qualified because they were going to turn 18 before that year’s general election.
Five other provisional ballots – including those from someone who didn’t bring proper ID to the polls, didn’t appear at the address on their voter registration or were challenged in some way – were considered by the Fountain County Election Board. Each was deemed invalid because the person wasn’t registered to vote or had been considered inactive and removed from the county’s voter rolls.
Smith said Fountain County had no outstanding military ballots, which would have been due by Friday.
Fountain County had the most voters in the Senate District 23 primary, accounting for 27.5% of the votes in that race. Copenhaver won the county with 56.5% of the vote.
In Montgomery County: Of Montgomery County’s provisional ballots, one was in Senate District 23, which covers the western edge of the county, Clerk Sondra Sixberry said. Copenhaver picked up that one during an election board meeting Monday afternoon in Crawfordsville, Sixberry reported.
Copenhaver won Montgomery County, which had the smallest number of voters in Senate District 23, with 63.7% of the vote.
The results Monday left three reported provisional ballots yet to count in two of the six counties included in Indiana Senate District 23.
That includes:
Parke County: One provisional ballot will be considered when the election board there meets at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 13, at the Parke County Courthouse in Rockville. The clerk’s office also reported one military ballot still outstanding. The deadline on the service member’s ballot is Friday. But the clerk’s office reported that the service member requested a Democratic ballot. Copenhaver won Parke County with 51.2% of the primary vote.
Tippecanoe County: Two provisional ballots in Indiana Senate District 23 will be reviewed by the election board at 1 p.m. Friday, May 15, at the Tippecanoe County Office Building in downtown Lafayette. That comes after a 10-day deadline for voters to clear up issues with provisional ballots and count military ballots that arrive after Election Day. Tippecanoe County Clerk Julie Roush said those were the only two ballots she knew of left to consider in that race. Deery won Tippecanoe County with 65.9% of the votes in the primary.
Warren County and Vermillion County: Both counties reported no provisional ballots left to consider and count from the May 5 primary.
Certified election results are due by 3 p.m. Friday.
The winner in the Republican primary will face David Sanders, a West Lafayette City Council member, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
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So to be considered the winner, she would need to pick up all three votes. If she picks up 2, Deery wins by 1 (or they tie is 1 is thrown out). If she picks up 1 Deery wins regardless.
Regardless of who wins, the “loser” will push for a recount.