By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
April 17, 2026
Greg Ballard’s campaign is blaming Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales for a missed deadline that forced the campaign to publicly announce its fundraising totals in a press release, rather than filing a first-quarter finance report through the online portal at the Indiana Election Division.
Ballard, a former Republican Indianapolis mayor, is running for secretary of state under his own label, the Lincoln Party. He launched his run for the statewide office in March and is still collecting the nearly 37,000 signatures of registered voters needed to get on the November ballot.
Ballard announced in his April 16 press release that his campaign had raised $289,807 in its first six weeks and provided a copy of the fundraising report he could not file. In the race for secretary of state, Republican incumbent Morales and Democrat Beau Bayh have each topped seven figures in their fundraising, but Ballard’s total outpaces the four other candidates running for the office.
Nathan Gotsch, Ballard’s campaign manager and the former executive director of Independent Indiana, an organization which has championed independent candidates, conceded more money will have to be raised to challenge whoever are the Republican and Democratic nominees for secretary of state.
“I think that we’ve seen over the past few cycles nationally and in the state that money doesn’t always mean everything, but it certainly is important, and you need to hit a certain number to be competitive,” Gotsch said. “I think raising over a quarter million dollars in the first six weeks of the campaign certainly suggests that we’re going to be able to do that.”
As it touted its fundraising effort, the Ballard campaign took a swing at Morales. The campaign said in the press release that it was “prevented from filing its official first quarter report by the Indiana Election Division in the Secretary of State’s office.”
Identifying the Secretary of State’s Office as the state agency that grants access to the online portal used by statewide candidates to file their finance reports, the campaign said it was told in a March 11 email “to expect login credentials.” However, the credentials were not provided until April 2, two days after the first quarter closed on March 31, the campaign said.
The delay in filing its finance report was “caused by the state’s failure to provide timely access to its own system, not by any action of the campaign,” the press release said.
Ballard said he did not want to wait to release his campaign finance report.
“Even though we were wrongly prevented from filing by the Secretary of State’s office, voters deserve to see this information,” Ballard said in the press release. “Publicly disclosing it is the right thing to do.”
Morales’ office swung back, asserting that managing the online portal was not part of its duties.
“The Secretary of State’s Office has no involvement in campaign finance reporting,” Lindsey Eaton, spokesperson for Morales, told The Indiana Citizen in an email. “It is not the Secretary of State’s duty to provide login credentials for the campaign finance system, that rests solely on the bi-partisan Indiana Election Division.”
A letter to the Ballard campaign from the Indiana Election Division, which was attached to the Ballard press release, said the blame for the fumbled filing rests with the candidate’s committee.
Signed by the Election Division co-directors, Republican Brad King and Democrat Angela Nussmeyer, the letter explained the Greg for Indiana committee did not amend its statement of organization until April 2, changing the structure from an exploratory committee to a principal committee. Login credentials are only sent to principal committees and since Ballard’s committee did not change its status until after the end of the first quarter, it did not receive access in time to meet the filing deadline.
The letter indicates the Ballard team had asked for an extension so it could file its quarterly finance report, but the co-directors could not reach a consensus on how to respond. While King wanted to allow for the late filing in order to enable the public to see the contributions to and expenditures of the Ballard campaign, Nussmeyer countered that the Election Division did not have the authority to adjust the reporting period.
Consequently, the Ballard committee will have to wait until the end of the second quarter and file a campaign finance report in July that covers Jan. 1 through June 30.
The Ballard campaign disputed the Election Division’s account. In an email, Kate Shepherd, communications director for the Ballard campaign, said the campaign tried for weeks, starting March 11, to get the portal login code from the division so it could electronically file the form to change the status of the Greg for Indiana committee. On April 2, Shepherd said, it “finally got the login information for the portal, filed the (statement of organization) amendment,” creating a principal committee.
“Although we completed and signed our version (of the statement of organization) on 3/31/2026, we were unable to submit it earlier because we did not receive system access until 4/2,” Shepherd told The Citizen in an email. “Unfortunately, the delay in receiving login credentials (about three weeks) limited our ability to file sooner and avoid timing issues.”
Morales’ office highlighted the Election Division’s letter as clearly showing the Democratic co-director was responsible for blocking the Ballard campaign from completing the filing process.
“Greg Ballard is completely wrong in his claim that they were wrongly prevented from filing by the Secretary of State’s office,” Eaton said. “It’s a shame to see a candidate for Secretary of State spreading misinformation regarding the Secretary of State’s Office as it sows distrust in our election system.”
Even so, Ballard’s campaign dug in.
It pointed out the Election Division is part of the Secretary of State’s Office and, according to the office’s own website, the secretary oversees elections. Also, the campaign noted the Election Division’s letter described the online portal as an “antiquated system,” the oversight of which, the campaign said, falls under the secretary of state’s responsibilities.
“You can’t say you oversee elections and then pass the buck when problems arise,” Shepherd said.
The Ballard campaign revealed about $100,000 of its total haul in the first quarter came from Hoosiers for Competitive Elections. This political action committee, formed in 2005 and currently chaired by Gotsch, promotes independent candidates.
Gotsch told The Citizen that Ballard was “a perfect person” for the PAC to support. Also, he said, donors are supportive because they understand the “importance of having independent oversight” in the Secretary of State’s Office and they like Ballard’s track record of governing Indianapolis “in a way that was nonpartisan.”
“I think people are just tired of the way that both (Democrat and Republican) parties have hijacked the system, so that it puts their interests over the interests of the voters,” Gotsch said of Ballard’s appeal to donors. “One of the best things about our system of democracy is that we, the people, are the ones who ultimately have the control to choose our leaders, and we’ve reached a point where that’s become harder and harder, but it’s not impossible. Mayor Ballard’s campaign is a shining example of what people-power democracy can look like.”
The other secretary of state candidates all filed their campaign finance reports through the online portal.
Bayh led the field, raising more than $620,000 and ending the opening quarter with $1.97 million on hand. Morales followed, bringing in more than $107,000 in donations and having $1.20 million in his campaign coffers.
Blythe Potter, who is vying for the Democratic nomination, ended the quarter by topping $20,000.
David Shelton, Knox County clerk, and Jamie Reitenour, the other Republicans challenging Morales for the GOP nomination, had about $3,700 and $2,900 on hand, respectively, at the close of the first quarter.
Lauri Shillings, Libertarian candidate, ended the quarter with more than $12,000 in her campaign fund.
The Democrat and Republican nominees for secretary of state will be chosen by the delegates during their respective parties’ state conventions this summer. All the eligible candidates for secretary of state will be on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election.
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
