LAFAYETTE, IN — Incumbent Spencer Deery now has a four-vote lead over challenger Paula Copenhaver in the GOP primary for the 23rd District of the Indiana Senate.
At the end of the vote tally on Tuesday night, Deery was ahead by three votes. An extra vote came from a Tippecanoe County voter who turned in a mail-in ballot on Tuesday at one of the polling sites and was counted Wednesday, Tippecanoe County Clerk Julie Roush said.
Tippecanoe County still has a total of 11 provisional mail-in ballots with signature issues — some unsigned and some with mismatched signatures, Roush said. The voters have until May 15 to resolve the signature issues. The Tippecanoe County Election Board meets at May 15 to certify the election.
Provisional ballots hold the key to whether Deery or Copenhaver wins the Republican race.
Copenhaver is from Fountain County, where seven provisional ballots need to be resolved. She won Fountain County 1,965 to Deery’s 1,515 votes.
There were five or fewer provisional ballots in Montgomery County, where Copenhaver received 392 votes to Deery’s 223 votes.
Parke County has one provisional ballot. Copenhaver received 1,249 votes to Deery’s 1,190 votes there.
In Tippecanoe County, Deery won 2,136 votes to Copenhaver’s 1,104 votes.
The election was hotly contested because Deery refused to vote for a proposed redistricting late last year that would have added Republican seats to Congress.
President Donald Trump backed the redistricting proposal. When it failed because of the Indiana Senate vote, Trump and national GOP organizations targeted seven Republican state senators who voted against the proposal.
Five of those state senators were defeated in the primary. One retained his seat, and Deery’s race is still too close to call.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Indiana Sen. Deery’s margin of victory widens by 1 vote
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
