By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
November 6, 2026
First Friends Meeting in Indianapolis was again a voting center for Marion County on Election Day, after fear and frustration from an incident in 2024 that threatened to become violent caused the church to step back from opening its doors as a polling site.
Associate Pastor Beth Henricks was happy First Friends decided to welcome voters again. She said the voting process at the Quaker church on Nov. 3 “went beautifully,” with cheers for first-time voters and a joyful atmosphere greeting those who came to cast a ballot in the 2026 midterm election.
However, whether First Friends would continue its decades-long tradition of being a voting site had been uncertain.
Two years prior, a belligerent man carrying two handguns and a knife had shown up at the First Friends polling site.
Eyewitnesses said the man used profanity and appeared to angrily confront poll workers. After being asked to remove his red baseball cap and turn his T-shirt inside out, because they had political slogans printed on them, the man put his cap on the head of one of the poll workers and removed his shirt altogether, revealing the weapons.
The poll workers on scene have been credited with de-escalating the situation, quickly ushering the man to the front of the registration line and then allowing him to vote while keeping the other voters safe. The poll workers then escorted him out of the building.
Police were called to the scene and talked to the man who had remained in a wooded area on church property, but they did not make an arrest.
This year, First Friends opted not to be a polling site for the May primary.
Henricks said the incident traumatized many members of the congregation. So, when the conversation began about whether to participate in this year’s general election, the members thought very carefully about what they wanted to do.
“We really wrestled with it as a meeting,” Henricks said. “Yet, as the months went on, we were like, ‘We don’t really want to be intimidated to stop providing this really important service to our community.’”
The decision by the members of First Friends was unanimous, she said.
On Election Day, a steady stream of voters arrived in the afternoon to cast their ballots. Walking through a small courtyard and entering the building where voting machines had been set up, the voters were immediately greeted by a poll worker. They moved quickly through the lines and when they were leaving, they could grab a tangerine from a basket on the table by the door.
“It makes my life so much easier,” one woman said about having a vote center at First Friends. “I’m very grateful for this location.”
Even as First Friends was happy to welcome voters back, the church took steps to prevent another disruptive and unsettling incident. The church had hired an off-duty police officer to remain on the property for the entire day.
Henricks said the officer stayed in his unmarked car but gave a walkie-talkie to the poll inspector inside the voting center, so that she could instantly send an alert if something started to happen.
Having to add security on church property for this election was “terribly disappointing,” Henricks said. “But we felt like we wanted to be extra cautious.” Also, she said, First Friends wanted to have someone close by to respond immediately because during the 2024 incident, she said, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers “didn’t come for 20 to 25 minutes.”
The Marion County Election Board conducted an investigation into the incident, which included hearing the testimony from the poll inspector and, during its December 2024 meeting, watching a cellphone video of the entire confrontation at First Friends. Also, the man who caused the ruckus was given multiple opportunities to appear before the Election Board, but, through his attorney, he declined.
After concluding its work, the Election Board forwarded the findings of alleged intimidation to Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears’ Office in early 2025.
Henricks and her colleagues at First Friends were hopeful the man would be held accountable, especially since the Indiana General Assembly had passed the poll worker protection law earlier in 2024. This law made threatening, obstructing, interfering with or injuring an election worker in Indiana a Level 6 felony. Individuals convicted of a Level 6 felony can be imprisoned for up to two-and-a-half years and fined as much as $10,000.
However, the Indianapolis grand jury did not indict the man.
Afterwards, representatives from First Friends contacted the prosecuting attorneys to try to learn what had happened with the grand jury.
“When we met with the prosecutor’s office, they said it’s hard to prove intimidation,” Henricks recalled. “That’s what they said.”
Although lawmakers will return to the Statehouse in January, Henricks said First Friends does not plan on advocating for amendments that would make the Poll Workers Protection Act easier to enforce.
If someone else “would take the lead on that, we would support it,” Henricks said about tweaking the law. “I don’t know that we have any intention to step forward and do something with that, but we would be supportive of it.”
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.
