By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
February 10, 2026
Despite the inclement weather and a last-minute scramble for child care, Ryan Price returned to the Indiana Statehouse last week to fix a potential problem with his candidacy paperwork.
The newcomer to politics had been part of the mass filing hosted by the Indiana Rural Summit coalition on Jan. 7. Price was in the group that was directed to the Indiana secretary of state’s office that day, where the staff reviewed his candidacy filing, signed it and then told him that everything was correct and in order.
However, two days before the filing deadline of Feb. 6, Price received an alert from the Rural Summit that the secretary of state’s office might have fumbled the filing process and his place on the ballot could face a challenge. He did not want to make the long drive back to Indianapolis, especially since Clark County, where he lives, had been hit with snow and sleet that week, but he is a Democrat running for the House District 66 seat in the legislature against Republican incumbent Rep. Zach Payne, R-Charlestown, and he wanted to eliminate the possibility of getting booted from the race because of a technicality.
With school canceled on Wednesday because of the wintry weather, Price enlisted relatives to babysit his 4-year-old son, buckled his 10-year-old daughter into the car and drove to the Statehouse. He and his daughter then went to the Indiana Election Division office and filed an amendment to his candidacy paperwork.
Price said the potential glitch did not discourage him or cause him to reconsider his decision to run for the Indiana General Assembly.
“If anything, it kind of verified that there needs to be changes made, because the people that we have in these positions aren’t doing a good job at all,” Price said. “We’ve just got to do what we can to fix that.”
Questions about Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales’ office’s handling of candidate filings began swirling last week when Indy Politics published an article about a possible “technical defect” in the process. According to the article, some concerns had been raised as to whether the office staff was legally authorized to verify the declarations of candidacy.
Morales issued a statement after the story was published, disputing the claims and asserting his office is following Indiana election law. He also sought to assure candidates that the filing process has been administered in accordance with statutory requirements.
Even so, questions remain. Candidates, like Price, crowded into the Election Division’s office last week to file amendments. Meanwhile, the Rural Summit called for an investigation, and a change to the state’s election code last year might be hindering a resolution to the situation.
Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said the controversy over the candidacy filings is unprecedented during his more than two decades in the legislature.
“The thing that’s concerning is the Secretary of State’s office has the job of administering the election code,” Pierce said, adding the office can get guidance and advice from its lawyers and the Indiana Election Division. “It seems to me there ought to be the knowledge within that organization as to how exactly to do something and get it done right.”
As part of the candidacy filing process, an individual running as either a Democrat or Republican must file a declaration of candidacy form. This document includes the candidate’s residential address, party affiliation, and office being sought.
The concern, according to Indy Politics, is that the secretary of state’s employees authenticating the filings were not properly certified as special deputies. Consequently, those declarations could be “deemed defective,” and the individuals who filed for the 2026 election with the secretary of state could have the legitimacy of their candidacies contested and possibly be removed from the ballot.
Morales issued a statement after the article was published, calling the story “false,” “highly uninformed,” and “irresponsible.” Also, he sought to reassure candidates that his office had properly authenticated and processed their paperwork according to statutory requirements.
“This article is a ‘gotcha’ attempt,” Morales said in his statement. “Not only is it unprofessional, but it sows distrust in our election process. Candidates should be assured that the Indiana Secretary of State’s office takes every precaution necessary to guarantee candidate filing paperwork is completed according to Indiana law.”
As part of his response, Morales released copies of the certificates appointing nine of his office’s employees as special deputies for authenticating candidate filing documents. The appointments covered the filing period from 8 a.m. Jan. 7 to noon Feb. 6. While six of the staff signed their certificates on Jan. 5, two signed on Jan. 6 and one on Jan. 7. None of the documents were time stamped.
Indy Politics noted a time stamp is the “official, contemporaneous proof of when a document was actually filed and accepted.” The release of the certificates without the time stamps, the article said, does not provide any reliable record that the special deputies were legally authorized to handle the candidate filings.
In his statement, Morales said his team followed the same candidate-filing process that the secretary of state’s office has done for decades. He also said Indiana’s election laws are “clear, long-standing, and consistently applied.”
“As Indiana’s Chief Election Officer, I will continue serving Hoosiers and not allow misleading reports to discredit confidence in our state’s election process,” Morales said in his statement.
Indy Politics identified House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, as among the candidates potentially affected. Huston’s office did not respond to an email from The Indiana Citizen asking if he had filed with the secretary of state’s office and if he had subsequently filed an amendment with the Election Division.
The uncertainty over the candidacy filings might have been abled to be settled if the Indiana Election Commission was able to issue an advisory opinion. However, House Enrolled Act 1680, authored by Rep. Tim Wesco, R-Osceola, and signed into law in May 2025, included a provision that not only removed the commission’s ability to offer advisory opinions but also made all such opinions filed by the commission prior to July 1, 2025, void.
Pierce said although an advisory opinion would not have had the force of law, it could have provided guidance to the candidates as to whether they should file an amendment, and, possibly, to the commission or courts if a candidacy is challenged. Having the opinion, he said, could have defused some of the chaos and maybe have saved time that now could be spent on trying to get an opponent off the primary ballot.
“People could still file challenges,” Pierce said. “They could claim that the advisory opinion is not correctly interpreting (the statute) and, I guess, ultimately you might end up in front of a judge somewhere making the argument. But I think that if you had an advisory opinion that said, ‘This is all good,’ you would probably deter some people from filing challenges, which would save everybody a lot of time.”
The Indiana Rural Summit is calling for an investigation. The organization called the confusion a “procedural failure by the office of the Secretary of State” and announced it was advising all of the candidates who filed their paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office during the mass filing event to return to the Statehouse and file an amendment with the Election Division.
Michelle Higgs, founder of the Rural Summit, demanded the Secretary of State’s office be held accountable.
“The fact that the office charged with overseeing Indiana elections may have made a mistake of this magnitude is unconscionable,” Higgs said in a statement. “We are calling for an immediate and transparent investigation. Hoosiers deserve to know: Was this a simple error, or is it a symptom of a broken system or worse, political gamesmanship?”
Like Price, Devon Wellington, a Democrat, also returned to the Statehouse last week to make sure her candidacy filing for House District 29, which includes most of Noblesville, was correct. She said she did not want to risk exposing herself to a challenge because she is trying to unseat the Republican incumbent, Alaina Shonkwiler, but must first face an opponent, Coumba Kebe, in the May primary.
Wellington said on Jan. 7, when she filed her declaration of candidacy, she first went to the Secretary of State’s office and then to the Election Division, where she was told her paperwork was good to go. When she returned to the Secretary of State’s office, she said a man had her initial and sign the document before taking it into another room. He came back with the signed form and said she properly completed the filing process.
Exiting the Secretary of State’s office, Wellington took a photo at a special display set up for candidates to commemorate their filings. She subsequently saw her name on the candidate list and had no reason to be concerned until she got the alert from the Rural Summit.
Arriving at the Statehouse on Feb. 4, Wellington was met by an Indiana Democratic Party official, who walked her over to the Election Division office.
“They were very accommodating, very kind, wanting to make sure that everyone who wanted to file was filed correctly,” Wellington said of the Election Division staff. “They were lovely. But, you know, it was pretty bustling in there, I’m not going to lie.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org
