11:10 a.m.
Ballots counted in Fountain County
The Fountain County Election Board gathered at the courthouse in Covington Monday morning to review and count provisional ballots.
Election officials considered six provisional ballots and determined two were valid and four were invalid. It took about 20 minutes to count the ballots in question.
Two votes went to Copenhaver and one went to Deery, narrowing his lead from five votes to four. The election board in Montgomery County will audit provisional ballots later today.
This is the second matchup between Deery and Copenhaver. The two faced each other in 2022 in another close race for the seat.
10 a.m.
Provisional ballots to be counted today
Provisional ballots being counted today in Fountain and Montgomery counties could decide the outcome of a five-vote Indiana Senate District 23 primary race between incumbent Sen. Spencer Deery (R-West Lafayette) and Trump-backed challenger Paula Copenhaver.
While Deery has called the race for himself, Copenhaver said that she believes she will ultimately have the votes once all provisional ballots are counted.
If Deery wins, he and Sen. Greg Goode (R-Terre Haute) will be the only incumbent candidates to survive the tense primary battles in seven races. State senators were targeted after they went against President Trump’s wishes and voted down a redistricting proposal late last year.
While counties have submitted their final unofficial vote counts for the May 5 primary election, county officials are still processing provisional ballots.
Voters are asked to cast a provisional ballot when they don’t have the proper photo ID card with them at the polls, if a poll clerk challenges a voter's signature when comparing or if there is a discrepancy on poll lists about which precinct the voter should be voting in.
Voters have until noon on May 13 to verify provisional ballots before counties can certify their election results.
In the six counties that make up Senate District 23, there are 13 provisional ballots that could count toward the race, according to the county clerks' offices.
The majority of those are in Fountain County, where the county election board will be evaluating the ballots at a public meeting this morning.
Later in the day, provisional ballots will also be counted in Montgomery County.
County results then must be finalized by May 15.
However, if a candidate or a party chair calls for a recount of a race, then the official deadline for finalizing election results would be delayed until the recount is finished.
In Indiana, a recount of an election is only triggered if a candidate or a party chair officially requests it. The recount for a state legislative race is then conducted by the state recount commission under a court-supervised procedure.
