The fight over who actually won the Republican primary for Bartholomew County Council District 2 is still grinding through the courts nearly four months after election night, with both Mark Bense and incumbent Leah Beyer filing a fresh round of motions over subpoenas, discovery requests, and a demand for a jury trial. Bense lost the May primary to Beyer by just seven votes, and he is now asking the court to preserve records tied to 12 ballots he says were the difference-makers.
Bense has requested that election officials preserve documentation on those 12 votes, including each ballot's precinct, the voter's registration and eligibility, the method used to cast it, when it was received, its counting status, and whether it faced any challenges or rejection, according to The Republic. He has also asked the court to determine whether any of those final votes came from government employees. Bense does not allege the 12 votes were fraudulent or improperly cast, and he is not seeking a full recount — instead, he says he simply wants answers. “I'm just trying to find out the truth,” Bense said, per the same account.
The 12 votes matter because of how tight the race was. Beyer won the nomination 868 to 861, with Bense actually carrying Election Day voting 629 to 578 before Beyer's edge in early and absentee ballots, 290 to 232, put her over the top, according to WBIW. Bense claims he was actually ahead by five votes before those final 12 were reported, the article notes. Bense, a self-employed farmer and trucking company owner in Bartholomew County, has said he has spent thousands of dollars of his own money pursuing the case.
Subpoenas Draw In State and County Officials
Bense's legal push has reached well beyond the county courthouse. He requested 13 subpoenas targeting local and state officials, including Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz, Bartholomew County Treasurer Barb Hackman, and Bartholomew County Commissioner Tony London, the seed report states. He later filed two additional subpoenas, including new ones for Bartholomew County Council Vice President Mark Gorbett and Knox County Clerk and former secretary of state candidate David Shelton.
One of those subpoenas, targeting Indiana Election Division co-director Joseph McLain, was filed on August 6 but did not survive. The Indiana Election Division moved to quash it on August 26, arguing that McLain and the division are not even mentioned in Bense's petition and that McLain has no personal knowledge to offer in the proceeding. Decatur County Magistrate Kenneth Bass, the special judge overseeing the case, granted that motion to quash on August 27, though Bense had opposed it and responded the next day, asking the court to deny the motion and, if a jury is ultimately prohibited, to at least preserve his objection for appellate review.
A Case Bounced Between Courts
Getting a judge to hear the case at all has been its own ordeal. Four local and regional judges — Bartholomew Superior Court Judge James Worton, Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin, Jennings County Judge Christopher Doran, and Brown County Judge Jennifer Wilson Reagan — recused themselves over conflicts of interest or statutory limits before Bass, from Decatur County, accepted the case on July 28. Bense's road to this point was also rockier than it needed to be: his original recount petition was dismissed in June 2026 after Special Judge Richard Poynter found that Bense, representing himself pro se, had failed to comply with Indiana Code 3-12-11-3 by leaving Beyer's name and address off his initial filing before the statutory deadline.
Beyer's attorney, William Beggs, has argued in a July 17 filing that Bense's subsequent special election petition amounts to an improper attempt to sidestep the dismissal of that original recount request rather than pursue formal appellate review. Beyer has since filed a motion opposing Bense's subpoenas and discovery requests, submitted one week after Bense's discovery motion, asking the court to halt all discovery, subpoenas, and recount or evidentiary proceedings until after the September 18 hearing. That hearing is set to address Beyer's motion to dismiss the case entirely, along with her request for attorney fees. Bense has countered that a pending motion to dismiss should not stop the preservation of election records in the meantime, and he has asked for a jury trial to resolve the dispute.
Personal Feud Spills Into Separate Lawsuit
The election contest has also spawned separate civil litigation. In August, Bense filed a defamation lawsuit in Bartholomew Superior Court against Beyer and her husband, Matthew Beyer, alleging that an anonymous Facebook comment posted under the handle “Anonymous participant 142” falsely accused Bense of past physical violence toward his father. That case underscores how far the personal animosity between the two candidates has spread beyond the ballot dispute itself.
Bense's frustration with the process dates back to election night itself, when he publicly alleged that Bartholomew County Courthouse personnel refused to speak with him as he sought information about late-reported absentee vote tallies. As of now, Bass has not granted any of Bense's or Beyer's pending motions, leaving the case unresolved heading into the September 18 hearing — just weeks before ballots must be finalized for the November 3 general election, where the Republican nominee is set to face Democratic candidate 16 contested Bartholomew races alongside opponent Zack Patchett.
