On Thursday, Feb. 5, the Hamilton County Election Board addressed a copy/paste error that could impact the number of Democrat state convention delegates from Hamilton County.
Late last year, the Indiana Democratic Party told the Hamilton County Election Board 162 delegates need to be selected from nine districts. The Hamilton County Democratic Party supplied the election board with a list of 144 delegate seats divided by township based on population. That is 18 fewer than the state party indicated Hamilton County should have.
Lowry
“The state law lets the state party decide the delegates,” Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Josh Lowry told The Reporter. “They didn’t tell the counties how many there are. They told the counties that we had 162. They also told the county election board and the secretary of state. We then, as the county [party], had to provide a breakdown by district. We get to decide the districts and how many go to each one, and we were looking at the 2024 map. When we sent the breakdown to the election administrator, we just accidentally sent the 2024 numbers, which was 18 delegates less than we actually have assigned. We then realized this and asked the election administrator to add them, and they said no.”
Lowry’s mistake was not noticed in a timely manner by either the Indiana Democratic Party, which was copied on the delegates list he submitted, or by the county election office.
The problem now is one of state law.
Hamilton County Election Administrator Beth Sheller told The Reporter she did not think this would be a difficult error to correct until she looked at Indiana statute and contacted the Indiana Election Division for guidance.
Sheller
“The way that the bipartisan team at the Indian Election Division had interpreted the law, they said that whatever they [the county party] gave us is what had to be, because it was due to us by Dec. 31 of 2025. He [Chairman Lowry] submitted it Dec. 4. It’s a party office. We go with what the party says.”
It would take a great deal of time to correct the delegates list on the ballot this late into the filing process, but Sheller said she and her people would do so if the law allowed.
“We would have had to take out almost 200 candidates, which would take a day,” Sheller said. “Then we would have to have the Indiana Election Division re-put in those offices because they had changed. Then we’d have to put them back in, which would probably take us a week of work. And that would be doable. It would probably delay us getting our ballot ready, but that would be doable – and my office would do that, if it were not for the law. I feel like, with guidance from the Indiana Election Division, that we have to stick by that. That’s what I told them in the election board meeting today.”
The entire bipartisan Hamilton County Election Board, including the Democratic board member, agreed that this was not an error the county was legally allowed to fix.
“My suggestion was maybe they will let you appoint those 18,” Sheller said. “That would be fantastic if they would just let him appoint them. Since I’ve never encountered that situation, I don’t know what they’ll say. I don’t know if there’s anything that would prevent that or not. I hope not because I’d like to see them utilize all of their delegates.”
Filing ends today, Feb. 6, at noon.
On Thursday afternoon, when asked what the solution will be, Lowry said, “Honestly, I don’t know. The law says once they’re told the delegates, that’s the number to be elected. We talked about this and I understand the election administrator’s position. She’s saying this is too time-consuming for us to do. I understand, but also, that’s the law. So, frankly, at this time, I don’t know. I’ll be talking to the state party later today and hopefully we’ll get it sorted out.”
With contested Democrat races where candidates for the general election will be decided at the state convention, rather than at the polls in the May primary, 18 Hamilton County delegates could have a huge impact on who appears on the November ballot.
Click here to read Lowry’s full statement.
Click here to read Sheller’s response to that statement.