Judge rejects bid by secretary of state candidate Ballard to force Election Commission meeting

The Indiana Election Commission doesn’t have to consider the validity of campaign misconduct allegations ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3, a Marion County judge ruled Monday.

The decision was made following a lawsuit filed by Lincoln Party secretary of state candidate Greg Ballard, who asked the judge to order that the commission hold a meeting regarding campaign finance complaints against Republican candidate Max Engling and Democrat Beau Bayh.

Marion County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Harrison said in her decision that Ballard had “failed to identify any concrete, actual harm” from the commission waiting until its scheduled Nov. 20 meeting.

“He instead presents hypothetical harm with no support that if Defendants meet before November 3, it will affect voter decision-making in the Secretary of State race,” Harrison wrote. 

Ballard said in a statement that he was “exploring our legal options to compel the commission to perform its statutory duty to meet.”

“Might makes right. The laws are intended to protect those in power,” Ballard’s statement said. “Not so long ago, the Election Commission acted in a more ethical, nonpartisan manner. However, the law does not protect voters from blatant political maneuvering if the commission decides to act to protect political parties over people.”

The state attorney general’s office argued during a court hearing Friday that state law does not set a time frame for the commission to review campaign finance complaints and that Ballard was trying “to use the commission to influence voters before Election Day.”

The most prominent of the pending complaints was filed in July alleging that Engling’s campaign improperly accepted $60,000 from Hoosier Leadership for America, a dark money political group associated with Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.

Engling’s campaign has reported it refunded the money a week before the complaint was filed by Knox County Clerk David Shelton, who finished second to Engling in seeking the Republican nomination during June’s state party convention.

The pending complaints also include allegations that Bayh attended several events sponsored by county Democratic parties but reported no in-kind donations from those organizations.

State law gives Election Commission Chair Beth Boyce, who is also the Johnson County Republican chair, authority over calling meetings of the panel, which is made up of two Republicans and two Democrats.