Overview
- The Indiana Recount Commission certified Paula Copenhaver as the winner of the May Republican primary for State Senate District 23 on Monday after a formal recount reversed the initial result.
- Officials invalidated ten absentee ballots because they lacked required markings, with eight ballots originally counted for Spencer Deery and two for Copenhaver being tossed for missing the county clerk’s signature or one or both election-judge initials.
- The net change from the rejected ballots produced a three-vote certified margin in Copenhaver’s favor, shifting the certified totals from Deery’s three-vote lead to a three-vote deficit.
- Deery said he will appeal the commission’s decision to the Indiana Court of Appeals; the commission also denied Copenhaver’s requests for subpoenas for local election officials and access to the federal SAVE citizenship-verification system.
- The race is one of several Trump-endorsed primary challenges to GOP senators who opposed a December 2025 redistricting push, and if the certification is upheld it could change the Senate’s balance and allow Republicans to revisit redistricting plans ahead of 2028.