Two candidates will remain on the primary ballot this Election Day following a special meeting of the Brown County Election Board last week.
The election board held a special meeting on Feb. 22 to discuss a challenge against Pearletta Banks who filed to run as a Republican against Clerk Kathy Smith this primary election.
The board also met last week to reconsider a challenge against Gregory May who is running as a Democrat to represent Brown County Council District 3. New information was provided following the board meeting on Feb. 15 when members voted to uphold a challenge against him filed by Smith.
At the election board meeting on Feb. 15, Smith said she had never received the CFA 1 form from May after leaving multiple messages telling him she needed it by Feb. 11 at noon. The form lists the campaign treasurer and the candidate’s committee information. It is required when running for office with a salary that is $5,000 or more, election board chairman Mark Williams said on Feb. 15.
May said in an email sent to Williams and member Kevin Fleming after the meeting that he had turned in the CFA 1 form along with other required paperwork, but that the CFA 1 was returned to him with highlighted areas he needed to correct and he was under the impression he had until Feb. 14 to turn the corrected one in. May was present at the meeting on Feb. 22.
The clerk’s office was closed Feb. 4 due to the winter storm, which was the deadline day for candidates to file. Because the deadline was extended to Feb. 7 that meant the deadline for the CFA form would be one week later, or Feb. 14, at noon, according to Indiana Code.
The evening of Feb. 15, May sent an email sharing his version of events surrounding the challenge to Fleming and Williams. He said he first visited the clerk’s office on Feb. 2 to submit his declaration of candidacy and statement of economic interests, but that they were not accepted because they were not notarized.
On the morning of Feb. 7, May submitted his forms again. Smith then left a message saying her office also needed a CFA 1 form “within a week of today.” That would have put the deadline at Feb. 14 and the board mentioned throughout the Feb. 15 meeting the official state deadline was noon on Feb. 11.
May then had a family member take the form to the clerk’s office on Feb. 14 before noon.
The election board reopened his challenge during the meeting on Feb. 22.
At that meeting, May said he did not receive a copy of the form he submitted on Feb. 14 and that it was missing.
Smith then held the document up during the meeting and said it was filed on Feb. 14.
May said that was the one he was told the clerk’s office did not have, which is why his candidacy was being challenged.
It was determined by the election board that May’s CFA 1 was timely filed. The challenge was disallowed unanimously by the election board.
Certain boxes were not filled out on May’s form, but ultimately the forms were determined sufficient.
The challenge against Banks was made by Larry Voris. Voris filed the challenge because he said the form was improperly filled out and that he could not see if Banks was an exploratory or a candidate on the CFA 1 filing.
He said in the meeting that there were several items left blank on the form.
The challenge was made in reference to CFA 1 forms dated July 11 and July 27. A file mark copy of Banks’ amended CFA 1 showed it was filed on Feb. 10, the same date that Voris filed the challenge.
Williams said that the challenge was based upon prior CFA 1 and was therefore “improper.” The board voted unanimously to reject the challenge. Smith abstained from the vote.
Voris also expressed concern about why the board asked for security camera footage to check when Voris came into the office to file. He asked if it was standard practice, fair or appropriate, given that he signed documents in front of a notary.
Williams said perhaps it was not standard practice, but that it was requested because the Banks challenge was not included with others that Fleming and Williams had reviewed ahead of the Feb. 15 meeting. Smith had announced in that meeting that she had found paperwork for the Banks challenge on her desk before coming to the meeting. Security footage was being reviewed to focus on the date of May’s filing in the clerk’s office, so Williams said he wanted to look at the footage of Voris coming into the office, too.
Republican precinct committeeman Ben Phillips asked the election board during the meeting last week why candidates could amend the CFA 1 form multiple times before it’s correct and if that defeats the purpose of a challenge.
Williams said that it exemplifies the integrity of the process and that the goal is to have a candidate on the ballot whose paperwork does not lend itself for the candidate to be disqualified.
“The goal is not to keep people out, but to let them in and run so long as they’re not disqualified,” he said.
On Feb. 15, the election board did vote to remove four Republican candidates who had filed to serve as delegates at the Republican Party state convention due to their voting history.
Brown County Republican Party Chairman Mark Bowman filed the challenges against those candidates for not meeting the voting history requirements set by the Indiana Republican State Committee.
According to the state committee’s Rule 1-24, a “qualified primary Republican” is a voter who cast a Republican Party ballot in the two most recent primary elections in Indiana that the voter had voted in. For example, if a voter cast a Republican ballot in 2016 and a Democrat ballot in 2014 they would not qualify to run as a Republican under the rule.
LOOKING AT THE BALLOT
Brown County clerk (four years)
(R) Pearletta Banks
(R) Kathy G. Smith
Brown County prosecutor (four years)
(R) Ted Adams
Brown County auditor (four years)
(R) Julia B. Reeves
Brown County sheriff (four years)
(R) Daniel S. Bowling
(R) Brad Stogsdill
(R) Chad A. Williams
Brown County coroner (four years)
(R) Vivian Jo-Lynn Grimes
(R) Michael R. Moore
Brown County assessor (four years)
(R) Mari H. Miller
Brown County commissioner, District 2 (northwest Brown County) (four years)
(R) Diana M. Biddle
(R) John B. Kennard Jr.
(D) Stephanie Porter Kritzer
(R) Ronald A. Sanders
Brown County council, districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 (four years)
(R) Darren M. Byrd (Dist. 2)
(R) Kyle Clark (Dist. 4)
(R) Gary J. Huett (Dist. 1)
(R) Jim D. Kemp (Dist. 4)
(D) Gregory A. May (Dist. 3)
(R) Joel B. Kirby (Dist. 3)
(D) Marcia Grooms Taylor (Dist. 4)
(R) David Waddell (Dist. 4)
Township trustees, all townships (four years)
(R) Ashley D. Lucas (Van Buren)
(R) Brandon M. Edens Magner (Washington)
(R) Sandra K. Higgins (Jackson)
(R) Phil Stephens (Hamblen)
Township board members, all townships, three seats (four years)
(R) Kimberly J. Brock (Washington)
(R) Larry L. Gardner (Jackson)
(D) Paul D. Hardin (Washington)
(R) James Kakavcos Jr. (Jackson)
(R) Tina McCormack (Hamblen)
(R) Freida Milnes (Hamblen)
(R) Vicki L. Payne (Van Buren)
(R) Ben Phillips (Van Buren)
(R) Sandra D. Pool (Jackson)
(R) Jim A. Rispoli (Washington)
(D) Melissa B. Rittenhouse (Washington)
(R) Robert L. Rossman (Hamblen)
(R) Sally S. Sanders (Van Buren)
(R) Mary A. Soll (Washington)
Democratic Party state delegates (two years)
(D) Melanie Voland
(D) MK Watkins
(D) Linda Welty
(D) Diana H. Wright
Republican Party state delegates (two years)
(R) Krista B. August
(R) Diana M. Biddle
(R) Mark Bowman
(R) Tanner E. Bowman
(R) Kimberly J. Brock
(R) Joseph P. Havlin
(R) Michelle D. Havlin
(R) Alex Miller
(R) Maddison Miller
(R) Heather Nicholson
(R) Ben Phillips
(R) Cindy Rose Wolpert
(R) Gregory S. Smith
(R) Kathy G. Smith
(R) Clint Studabaker
(R) Jennifer “Jenni” Voris
(R) Larry Voris
(R) Chad A. Williams
(R) Blake Wolpert
Democrat precinct committeemen (one from each voting precinct in each township)
(D) Rick A. Bond (Jackson 3)
(D) Herbert W. Brown (Washington 1)
(D) Linda C. Lawson (Washington 2)
(D) MK Watkins (Hamblen 1)
