By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
May 4, 2026
Still unsettled by an incident at its polling place involving an armed and visibly angry voter during the November 2024 election, First Friends Quaker Meeting in Indianapolis has decided not to be a voting site this primary, ending a tradition of at least 20 years.
The decision came after Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears’ office had presented the case to a grand jury but told First Friends in March that an indictment had not been issued and the matter had been closed.
“(The deputy prosecutors) indicated that they didn’t think that the statutory grounds had been met to actually issue an indictment,” said Phillip Goodchild, a member of First Friends who, along with Associate Pastor Beth Henricks, met with prosecuting attorneys. “We were a little incredulous and asked, “How could that be?’ and they said, ‘Well, we can’t really go into that with you.’”
The Marion County prosecutor’s office did not respond to repeated requests for an interview or a comment.
Once First Friends learned of the outcome, members had to balance voters’ safety and security against the Quaker tradition of community service, Goodchild said. Reaching a decision was difficult and one, he said, the church did not feel it should have had to make.
“It’s not a big leap from our conviction as Quakers that there’s God in every person to helping out on Election Day to ensure that every ballot is cast and that voices of voters are heard,” Goodchild said. “It has felt to us like that particular Election Day in 2024, voters were silenced.”
Goodchild said First Friends is still considering whether it will be a polling site for the 2026 general election in November.
The incident happened four months after Indiana enacted a law that made threatening, obstructing or physically harming a poll work a Level 6 felony. Senate Enrolled Act 170, authored by Republican Sens. Greg Walker of Columbus and Sue Glick of LaGrange, was passed by the legislature during the 2024 session with bipartisan support.
Members of the Marion County Election Board who investigated and held three public hearings about the episode at First Friends, expressed confidence that the new law could be applied to this case. After the second hearing on the matter in January 2025, Jennifer Ping, vice chair of the election board, said, “I’m really glad that we have (SEA 170) for us to be able to utilize today.”
Goodchild said First Friends did not learn the case had been closed until it reached out to the prosecutor’s office. The congregation was surprised and disappointed, he said, and continue to be baffled as to why the prosecutor’s office was unable to secure an indictment.
“I know intimidation has a specific meaning in the voting context and whether (the prosecutor’s office) missed the mark in presenting the case to the grand jury, I’ll leave to others to debate,” Goodchild said.
“But I, and others who witnessed the incident, have no doubt what we saw that day was intimidation of voters. The result of the visibly armed and belligerent individual’s conduct was that many voters departed the polling. Some were visibly shaken. … There was a definite chilling effect on voting the remainder of the day.”
The Indianapolis man accused of causing the incident entered the First Friends polling location around lunch time on Election Day 2024.
Neither he nor the attorney who was representing him before the election board could be reached for comment.
According to testimony given to the Marion County Election Board, plus an investigative report and a video recording of the event, the man entered the First Friends election site wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap that had logos and messages supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Any items supporting a candidate are not allowed in polling places, so Ed Choate, a poll worker, told the man that he had to remove his hat and turn his shirt inside out. The man responded by yelling and using foul language, then put his cap on Choate’s head before pulling off his shirt to reveal two handguns and a knife in his waistband.
Margo Kelly, the election official in charge of the First Friends polling site, intervened and escorted the man to the front of the line and got him checked in.
While walking him to a voting booth, out of concern for voter and poll worker safety, she told him he could put his shirt back on. He did and then cast his ballot. At that time, Kelly escorted him to the exit.
The video of the incident was shown at the Marion County Election Board’s December 2024 meeting. A recording of the meeting includes the video, which starts at the 18:44 minute mark.
In her testimony before the election board at the January 2025 hearing, Kelly said, “You can’t appreciate from the video how hostile and belligerent he was.”
Two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers arrived a short time later and took the man to a wooded area on the church grounds where they questioned him and then questioned a couple of the election workers, according to Goodchild. However, the officers released the man and departed.
Prior to the man’s arrival, Goodchild said, First Friends’ fellowship hall where the polling site was located was crowded with voters and the line of people waiting to cast a ballot stretched out into the courtyard. The record number of voters prompted Kelly to ask that additional ballots be sent to the site.
In the hall’s large kitchen, First Friends members were keeping the poll workers fed, preparing breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Goodchild described the atmosphere as “a celebration of Election Day.”
However, Goodchild said when the man entered the polling site, the crowd seemed to take a collective intake of breath and the chatter between voters stopped. People, some of whom had brought their children, began leaving. Goodchild and his colleagues helped several exit through the kitchen doors that led outside.
Goodchild said videos and descriptions of the incident spread quickly on social media and, as a result, the steady stream of voters was reduced to a trickle.
“It was a sad anticlimax to what had been a busy voting day.”
Marion County poll workers are trained in de-escalation tactics, which have been credited with enabling the election workers to defuse the incident at First Friends and keep it from becoming more dangerous. For her actions on that Election Day, Kelly was presented with the Beacon of Freedom Award by the Marion County Circuit Court clerk’s office at its August 2025 celebration of the Voting Rights Act.
Kelly noted the incident is still very troubling. Poll workers and voters had been going to the First Friends voting site for years, but now, not only is the location not available this primary, some of the election workers have been unable to continue serving.
“I respect the grand jury process, though I’m disappointed by the outcome,” Kelly said. “My focus remains on ensuring voters and poll workers feel safe, because when people feel intimidated, it undermines confidence in our elections.”
Marion County Circuit Court Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell is a member of the election board. She said the board members were deliberate in their investigation and held several hearings to give the man a chance to appear and testify. However, through his attorney, he declined to present his side of the story.
Also, Sweeney Bell said, the attorneys working for the board said the evidence that had been collected about the incident seemed adequate to support an indictment. She said she is disappointed the poll workers and First Friends did not get justice.
“We thought we were giving them everything they needed,” Sweeney Bell said of the prosecutor’s office. “They didn’t see it that way.”
First Friends advocates at the Statehouse for different issues, most recently joining an interfaith coalition to seek an end to the death penalty in Indiana. Goodchild said First Friends will likely be talking to lawmakers about the state’s election law when the General Assembly reconvenes in 2027 and will probably look for a legislator to sponsor a bill banning weapons at polling places.
“From what I and others saw, some voters were intimidated and voices were silenced at First Friends that Election Day,” Goodchild said. “And we’re still feeling the repercussions.”
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.
