The Indiana Recount Commission will hold the final hearing in the contested Republican primary for Senate District 23 on Aug. 10 in Indianapolis, under an order issued Monday that also gives the two campaigns until Friday to say which disputed ballots they still intend to fight over.
Order 2026-33, signed by Recount Director Evan M. Norris, sets the hearing for 9 a.m. Aug. 10 in Conference Room B at Government Center South, 302 W. Washington St. Norris is acting under authority the commission delegated to him in May.
The Indianapolis venue is the product of an agreement rather than a ruling. Norris met virtually with the parties July 31, and according to the order both sides agreed to consolidate all of the district’s counties into a single proceeding and to hold the final hearing at the Government Center. The order cites the efficiency of one central location with live-streaming capability that is easily accessible to state officials. At the commission’s July 28 hearing, challenger Paula Copenhaver had asked orally that the final hearing be held in Tippecanoe County, where most of the disputed ballots are; that request had been taken under advisement.
The order sets a deadline of Aug. 7 for each party to file a statement on every disputed ballot — either withdrawing it or, if not, filing a statement saying so. Norris wrote that the volume of disputed ballots makes the step necessary and that the goal is to narrow the disputed and undisputed fields before the hearing begins. At the hearing, the commission will be asked to order each remaining ballot counted for a specified candidate or not counted at all.
The order also discloses a correction. The State Board of Accounts notified Norris that the Wabash 4 precinct in Tippecanoe County had been inadvertently left off the list of precincts with no disputes. Norris will present a report on that precinct when the commission convenes.
Norris wrote that he is taking no further action on the requested contest proceeding as part of this order, and that the remainder of the recount and contest will proceed under the commission’s guidelines.
Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, finished the May primary a few votes ahead of Copenhaver, a former Fountain County clerk and county Republican chair endorsed by President Trump. The State Board of Accounts recount produced no change in the tally in any of the six counties in the district. What remains in dispute is roughly a dozen votes: eleven voters Copenhaver alleges crossed over from the Democratic primary — nine in Tippecanoe County, one in Fountain and one in Warren — plus a Parke County correction to certified results and the handling of a single Tippecanoe County absentee ballot. Tippecanoe County Clerk Julie Roush has publicly disputed the campaign’s account of that ballot.
The commission’s omnibus order after the July 28 hearing denied nearly every pending request from both sides, including Deery’s motion to dismiss the contest and motions from each campaign to subpoena voters and documents.
Timing is tight. Candidates must be certified to the November ballot by Aug. 21. The winner faces Democrat David Sanders and independent Joshua Brant in the fall.
