Indiana Supreme Court will decide winner of high-profile disputed election after GOP officials threw out votes

By Jen Rice

Republican State Sen. Spencer Deery stands outside a vote center during a primary election on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in West Lafayette, Ind. (AP Photo/Cara Penquite)

The Indiana Supreme Court is set to decide whether a Republican state senator who bucked President Donald Trump’s demand for a gerrymandered map will keep his seat in a race that’s come down to a narrow three-vote margin.

Despite threats and intimidation from Trump’s MAGA base, state Sen. Spencer Deery (R) was one of several Indiana GOP lawmakers who stunned the country by refusing to vote for the president’s proposed congressional gerrymander in Indiana. 

Deery at one point had a three-vote lead in the primary, but now Trump-backed challenger Paula Copenhaver, a staffer for the state’s pro-gerrymander lieutenant governor, leads by three votes after a recount tossed out a handful of ballots.

The Indiana Supreme Court will now decide the final winner. 

The justices will review the findings of a three-member commission convened to oversee the recount. It was made up of one Republican, one Democrat and commission chair Secretary of State Diego Morales (R), an election denier who claimed the 2020 presidential election outcome was “questionable.”

The commission did not find a discrepancy in the vote count. Rather, the two Republicans decided to toss out six ballots that were missing county clerk signatures or initials from election officials, flipping the election for Copenhaver. The Democrat on the commission dissented.

Deery accused the two Republicans of “finding” votes to support “the president’s political goals.” He argued the members of the recount commission had erred.

“Indiana law makes clear that valid votes should not be silenced simply because of minor errors made by clerks — clerks who were supposed to be trained by the chairman of this very commission,” Deery said in a social media post. 

Now, on the eve of voting in the November general election, the Indiana Supreme Court will decide which Republican candidate appears on the ballot. 

Last week, the court ordered counties in the disputed state senate district not to send out mail ballots until the case is decided.