COVINGTON, INDIANA — Former Fountain County clerk Paula Copenhaver filed for a recount Monday in the Indiana Senate District 23 Republican primary after losing to incumbent Sen. Spencer Deery by three votes. Copenhaver had been endorsed by President Donald Trump in the race.

County election boards in the six counties that make up Senate District 23 certified the results by the Friday, May 15, deadline. The district is comprised of parts of Tippecanoe, Montgomery, Fountain, Warren, Vermillion and Parke counties. Between the May 5 election and the certification deadline, the vote spread ranged from as high as four votes to as close as two votes as county election boards considered provisional ballots.

In a statement announcing the recount filing, Copenhaver said her campaign had identified what it described as documented evidence of improper participation in the primary. "After carefully reviewing the available information, we have obtained documented evidence of illegal voting by unqualified voters in the Senate District 23 Republican Primary," Copenhaver said. "We are formally pursuing a recount to ensure votes were properly counted and returned in this very close election and that legal votes are counted, while illegal votes are not."

She also addressed voters across party lines. "Republicans and Democrats deserve confidence in the integrity of our primary system for choosing each party's candidates," she said. "In this case, participation in the Republican primary by individuals not qualified to vote in the Republican primary violated state law and undermined the will of Hoosier Republicans, undercutting the integrity and fairness of our primary."

According to the Indiana secretary of state office, a recount commission decides whether specific votes are counted. The commission will conduct the tally in person in the counties where the votes were cast. There is no indication yet when the recount commission might begin its work.