The Indiana Supreme Court stepped into one of the closest elections imaginable Thursday, overturning a state recount decision and declaring incumbent Republican state Sen. Spencer Deery the winner of Indiana’s Senate District 23 primary by three votes.
Not 300 votes. Not 30. Three.
The court ordered election officials to certify Deery with 6,335 votes and challenger Paula Copenhaver with 6,332, reversing the outcome produced by the Indiana Recount Commission. The ruling means Deery will appear on the November ballot as the Republican nominee for Senate District 23.
The dispute traces back to the May 5 Republican primary. Deery initially finished three votes ahead of Copenhaver, prompting Copenhaver to request a recount.
That recount changed everything.
The Indiana Recount Commission ultimately excluded six ballots that had been cast for Deery. Four were absentee-by-mail ballots and two were early in-person ballots. The problem was that the ballots lacked a required county clerk stamp or signature.
With those six ballots removed, Copenhaver moved ahead, 6,332 to 6,329.
Deery challenged the decision, arguing that voters should not lose their votes because election officials failed to perform an administrative duty. His attorney characterized the commission’s decision as an “abuse of discretion.”
The Indiana Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the argument that state law allowed the ballots to be counted.
“Indiana Code section 3-12-1-12 makes a qualifying ballot legally countable despite a defect caused by an election officer,” the court said in its order.
That distinction became the heart of the case. Indiana law provides circumstances in which a ballot can still be counted when an election officer’s action or failure to act creates a defect, provided there is not evidence of fraud, tampering or misconduct affecting the ballot’s integrity.
Copenhaver’s side had argued that the required clerk seals and signatures function as ballot authenticators. Her attorney, William Bock, told the court, “That’s why the seal and signature are on an absentee ballot as authenticators, because the problem can come in any part of the process. It need not be a voter error.”
The case also carried political significance beyond six disputed ballots.
Copenhaver had received President Trump’s endorsement after Deery opposed a proposed mid-decade congressional redistricting effort in Indiana. Deery was among several Republican incumbents who faced primary challenges after opposing the redistricting push.
The Indiana Supreme Court’s decision ends the immediate dispute over who won this particular primary. Its September 3 order had temporarily blocked the recount result from being used to finalize Senate District 23 general-election ballots while the appeal remained unresolved.
Now that uncertainty has been resolved.
The final certified margin is about as narrow as American elections get: Deery, 6,335; Copenhaver, 6,332.
For all the millions of dollars spent on campaigns, advertisements, polling and political operations, Senate District 23 delivered a remarkably simple reminder about close elections.
Sometimes three ballots really do decide who moves on.
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