As Indiana Republicans nominated their candidate for secretary of state Saturday, former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard announced his campaign has submitted more than 52,000 signatures to get on the fall ballot.
He needs roughly 37,000 signatures to become the fourth official candidate for the post in November.
“It didn’t matter who the Republicans nominated today. There are more independents in Indiana than Republicans or Democrats, and this November they will finally have a true independent to vote for,” said Ballard, who served two mayoral terms as a Republican.
County election staff still have to verify the signatures are registered voters.
If Ballard qualifies for the ballot under the “Lincoln Party” label, he’ll face Republican Max Engling, Democrat Beau Bayh and Libertarian Lauri Shillings.
On Friday, the Ballard campaign also acknowledged the team will pay $450 in fines from the Indiana Election Division for filing two donation reports after the deadline.
And last week, Indiana State Police confirmed it is investigating whether a Ballard volunteer submitted a page of fraudulent signatures. Hamilton County Election Administrator Beth Sheller said her staff discovered the suspect signatures in late May or early June.
“Nine out of 10 of these addresses were not real addresses,” she told the Capital Chronicle. The one legitimate address was with a name not registered to vote at that location — and instead matched the name of the volunteer who submitted the signatures.
“And, you know … all the writing’s kind of the same,” Sheller said. “… That’s what led us to believe that they were possibly fraudulent, and then we let the State Police decide.”
It will ultimately be up to a prosecutor to decide if criminal charges are brought.
“It’s why all signatures are verified by the counties and why each signature gatherer has to sign each petition sheet attesting to the validity of the signatures on it,” the Ballard campaign said Thursday.
“The campaign is committed to following all state and federal election laws,” it continued. “As soon as we learned of this issue, we ended this rogue individual’s association with the campaign.”