Having collected enough verified signatures, Former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is set to appear on the November ballot as an independent Secretary of State candidate. The number of validated signatures is not yet final, and the various numbers reported by his campaign may cause some confusion for Hoosiers following this race.
Ballard’s campaign came under fire in mid-June after one of the campaign’s volunteers allegedly submitted 10 fake voter signatures in Hamilton County.
Two weeks later, on Tuesday, June 30, Ballard announced that his campaign had submitted, “at least 74,204 petition signatures – more than double the 36,943 verified signatures required to qualify for Indiana’s November ballot.”
A press release on June 30 indicated that Ballard had personally delivered the campaign’s final batch of Marion County petitions to election officials at the Indianapolis City-County Building that day.
On Friday, July 10, Ballard’s campaign released an “official Petition Summary Report from the State,” stating that county officials had already validated and certified 41,175 signatures, which is more than the 36,943-signature threshold required by state law.
That summary report reflects certified signatures from 70 of Indiana’s 92 counties. According to the Ballard campaign the statewide total was expected to climb further as the remaining counties complete their validation ahead of Tuesday’s [today, July 14] planned signature delivery to state officials.
Readers will have to wait and see how many of Ballard’s previously reported 74,204 petition signatures are validated, but regardless of that number, Ballard already has more than the minimum number and thus should appear on the November ballot for Indiana Secretary of State, facing off against Republican candidate Max Engling and Democrat candidate Beau Bayh.
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