On the first day of early voting, October 6, 2026, a voter noticed an error involving the county council district listed on their ballot. The voter immediately contacted the Hendricks County Election Supervisor Debbie Riley as well as Marjorie Pike, the County Clerk. County elections and voter registration are under the responsibility of the County Clerk.
County Clerk Pike sent The Republican a press release, published in the October 15, 2026, issue, acknowledging the error and said they were notifying the public about the incorrect ballots in five precincts.
Voters living in the affected precincts were encouraged to return to their polling location, if possible, to cast their ballots using the corrected version. Election officials were also proactively attempting to reach the voters that had already voted.
Pike sent another press release, published in the October 22, 2026, issue of The Republican, explaining that the ballot error had also affected the May 2026 Republican County Council Primary.
When The Republican asked about remedies available to candidates that may have been affected by the council district mix up in the Primaries, Riley said she reached out to the Indiana Election Division. “I received a response from the election division about the concerns of our primary election and that response is, the timeframe to contest or challenge the primary election has passed,” Riley shared with The Republican.
Under Indiana law, the deadline for a candidate to contest any election results is 14 days after the election. However, the county party chair has 17 days to contest the results. Both deadlines have long passed.
How did this mix up occur? County Council districts are defined by a county ordinance. The ordinance shows which precincts vote for which council districts. The ordinance is then used to apply the correct information for each precinct into the Beacon GIS mapping software.
The Beacon GIS maps are where the errors were found. It appears the election office used the Beacon GIS maps to create the ballots for each precinct instead of using the written ordinance. The Republican has asked the chair of the Election Board Don Hodson how the precinct information is uploaded to the Beacon GIS. Does Beacon upload the info from the ordinance or does a county employee upload the info to Beacon?The Republican is waiting for responses from Hodson, Riley, and Pike. The Republican acknowledges that all election officials are in their busiest time of year but will update this story with any responses pertinent to this story.
Overview
The Republican reviewed past county election records to determine whether the mix-up affected any previous county council elections. The most recent ordinance changing the geographical boundaries of the county council districts was adopted in 2022.
The 2023 elections involved municipal seats only, with no county council races on the ballot.
In 2024, the only county council seat on the ballot was the at-large seat, for which voters throughout the county could cast a vote.
There were no county council elections in 2025.
The review found that the same mix-up affected only the county council races in the May 2026 primary.
However, The Republican has not checked if every precinct in the county is accurately reflecting what seats are on the ballot for all races in the county that are divided into districts or wards. There are 105 voting precincts in Hendricks County.
Below is an outline of which precincts were affected by the county council races:
Hendricks County has four county council districts. Districts 1, 2 and 4—were affected by the error.
The following precincts had incorrect county council district information on Republican primary ballots:
Precinct Lincoln 8: This precinct is in Council District 4, but the ballots for those living in this precinct incorrectly showed the District 1 Council race. Republican Dave Cox ran uncontested and erroneously received 72 votes from this precinct. Eric Wathen won the District 4 primary by 808 votes.
Precinct Lincoln 9: This precinct is in District 2, but ballots were for District 1. Cox erroneously received 154 votes.
Precinct Lincoln 10: This precinct is in District 1, but ballots were for District 2. Anthony Gary received 54 votes, while Jay Puckett received 28.
Precinct Lincoln 15: This precinct is in District 2, but ballots listed District 1. Cox erroneously received 94 votes.
Precinct Lincoln 16: This precinct is in District 2, but ballots listed District 1. Cox erroneously received 82 votes.
