By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
October 14, 2026
Hendricks County election officials are notifying about 150 individuals that their ballots contained an error and those votes must be recast in order to count in the 2026 general election.
According to Hendricks County Circuit Court Clerk Marjorie Pike, the bad ballots, which occurred in five precincts, flip-flopped the candidates in the County Council’s first and second districts. She said a voter identified the problem on Oct. 6, the first day of early in-person voting, and alerted election officials.
“The wrong district was on some of the ballots,” Pike said. “It was brought to our attention immediately, the first day (of early voting), and it was fixed immediately. Everyone who got the incorrect (ballot) hasbeen notified and they are eligible to come back and revote.”
Anthony Gary, a Republican, is the only candidate on the ballot for District 2, but in District 1, incumbent David Cox, a Republican, is being challenged by Cindy Simmons, a Democrat. Pike said most of the problematic ballots were printed with the District 2 race, when they should have had the District 1 contest.
Hendricks County Democratic Party Chair Linda Lasiter said she was not concerned about the mishap and did not think it would have any negative impact on the election outcome.
“This kind of thing could get blown up into something that it really doesn’t need to be,” Lasiter said. “It was an error. Human beings still do a lot of the work that computers aren’t doing yet.”
Hendricks County Republican Party Chair Phil Clay did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The bad ballots were distributed to individuals voting by mail and people voting in-person at an early-voting location, Pike said. The affected voters have been notified of the mistake through phone calls and email messages from county election officials. Also, the voters are being mailed a letter and a form they can fill out so they can cast a replacement ballot, Pike said.
“We’re already had people come in in-person” to recast their ballots, Pike said. “We’ve already had people return the forms.… So, they’re very responsive.”
Lasiter said she had spoken with two voters who had thought their ballots were odd, but they voted and later felt bad they had not raised their concerns with election officials. Also, she said Simmons, one of the District 1 candidates, was confident the ballot error had been corrected and was no longer an issue, after speaking with the Democratic Party representative on the Hendricks County Election Board.
“I feel very confident that they have it sorted out,” Lasiter said, adding that the “the local election office works really, really hard” to put in place all the “trillion pieces” needed to get the voting process set up and running. “It’s just a disappointment when something comes up that’s … completely out of the blue, that you don’t expect and it kind of throws you off for a minute.”
Pike attributed the mix-up to a mapping mistake that mislabeled five precincts and put them in the wrong county council districts. She said the error had not occurred in previous elections, and she is confident it will not happen in future elections.
“It’s already been fixed,” Pike said.
Lasiter was unsure whether the problem with the ballots would discourage voters from participating in the 2026 election or dissuade local residents from running for office.
“You can think that just about anything,” Lasiter said. “You don’t know. There’s no way that I know of for anybody to know how anybody’s going to react to something.”
Hendricks County is not the only place in Indiana to have a ballot headache this October. Floyd County, along the Ohio River, sent incomplete ballots to nearly 600 voters, according to Louisville Public Media.
The Floyd County Commissioners District 1 race was missing from the ballots of four precincts, the media organization reported. The bad ballots were sent to voters who had requested a mail-in ballot and individuals who voted early in-person from Oct. 6 through Oct. 8.
County election officials had not identified the source of the error, according to Louisville Public Media, but they said the problem had been fixed. Also, voters are being sent letters explaining the mistake and given a form to fill out to recast their votes.
“The Election Board’s immediate priority is to provide each identified voter a lawful opportunity to vote in the omitted race,” according to statement from the board. “The Election Board recognizes the importance of providing every voter a complete and accurate ballot and apologizes to the affected voters for this error.”
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.
