Hamilton County officials have reported a page of 10 signatures submitted by a volunteer for Greg Ballard’s independent campaign for secretary of state as potentially fraudulent — prompting the county Republican Party leader to call for an investigation and prosecution.
Ballard, the former Republican mayor of Indianapolis, needs nearly 37,000 verified signatures from registered voters in order to get on the November ballot. He has submitted about 35,000 thus far.
Hamilton County Election Administrator Beth Sheller said her staff discovered one page of suspect signatures for the Ballard campaign sometime 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.”
The State Police, she said, picked up the page of signatures shortly after its discovery.
“I can confirm that we received allegations of a crime and we are currently investigating,” Spokesman Sgt. John Perrine said.
The agency doesn’t determine prosecution and filing of charges, however.
“We gather information through an investigation and present it to the appropriate prosecutor for review,” Perrine said.
The agency didn’t say if any other counties had reported any signatures submitted by the same volunteer.
“An example, at least, should be set. Otherwise, it’s going to keep happening,” Sheller said, although she cautioned that the Ballard campaign didn’t necessarily do anything wrong.
“They’re trusting their people to go out and get them (signatures), you know, … and they don’t know until we go through,” she said.
Hamilton County GOP Chair Mario Massillamany dragged Ballard in a Thursday news release.
“Greg Ballard is running for the office responsible for protecting Indiana’s elections, yet a volunteer on his campaign has been caught submitting fraudulent petition signatures,” Massillamany said. “If you cannot run an honest petition drive, you have no business running the office that safeguards our elections.”
Ballard’s campaign, meanwhile, said the system is “working exactly the way it’s supposed to.”
“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 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.”
The campaign emphasized that the 10 signatures in question represent just 0.02% of the more than 35,000 signatures already submitted ahead of a June 30 deadline.
His campaign will need to submit more than the nearly 37,000 requirement to account for those who are unregistered, are duplicates or — in this case — whose signatures are accused of being forged.
Massillamany also urged election officials statewide to undertake “heightened review” of Ballard campaign petition pages.
Sheller said it’s standard operating procedure to check all signatures against voter rolls. Her office “won’t be relooking at them” because staff “double-check our signatures from the beginning.”
If Ballard qualifies for the ballot under the “Lincoln Party” label, he’ll face Democrat Beau Bayh, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and the winner of a crowded, contentious Republican field to be decided Saturday during the state GOP convention.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
