Poll workers show voters who to cast their ballots at Greenwood Bible Baptist Church on Nov. 7. There was a higher-than-expected turnout at this center due to two contested city council races for voters near the polling place.
Daily Journal File Photo
The 2024 election may be more than a year out, but candidates have already been out campaigning for offices on the ballots next year.
There are 40 offices up for election next year, 27 for the primary and 33 for the general. A majority of offices will appear on both ballots, though some are primary only, like state convention delegates and precinct committeemen, while others, like Vice President, Lieutenant Governor, State Attorney General, and school boards, are general election only.
Indiana’s primary elections for Democrats and Republicans are set for May 7. The general election is set for Nov. 5.
Federal offices
Starting from the top, there are four federal offices on the ballot — president, vice president, U.S. junior Senator and U.S. Representative for District 6.
For President, there are many contenders, but the front runners right now are incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former President Donald J. Trump, a Republican.
For U.S. Senate, Indiana has one seat up for election. The seat is open as Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, is running for governor.
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, is running for the seat and has received support from the Indiana GOP. He is being challenged in the primary by Seymour egg farmer John Rust, who recently won an injunction in a lawsuit challenging the state’s ballot access law to allow him on the ballot.
Also running as Republicans are Erik Benson of Rushville and Wayne Harmon of Indianapolis.
In the Democratic primary, Marc Carmichael of Muncie, Dr. Valerie McCray of Indianapolis and Marshall Travis of Osceola are running. Richard Allen Kent of Lebanon is running as an independent.
The office of U.S. Representative for District 6 is currently held by Rep. Greg Pence, R-Indiana. Pence intends to seek another term, he told the Daily Journal earlier this year.
State offices
Hoosiers will elect a new Governor in 2024, as Republican incumbent Gov. Eric Holcomb is term-limited. Five Republicans are running in the primary to replace him — Braun, former Indiana commerce secretary Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, businessman Eric Doden, former State Attorney General Curtis Hill and Jamie Reitenour, who describes herself as a “Christ-centered conservative.”
On the Democratic ticket, Jennifer McCormick, who was once the state’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction is running. Libertarian Donald Rainwater is also running.
For Attorney General, Republican incumbent Todd Rokita and Democrat Destiny Wells are expected to seek their parties’ nominations.
Three of Johnson County state senators are up for election for another six-year term— Districts 32, 36 and 37.
District 32 is currently represented by State Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis. The district covers part of Pleasant Township, all of Clark Township and part of Marion County.
District 36 is represented by State Sen. Cyndi Carrasco, R-Indianapolis, who was selected in an October caucus to replace the late Sen. Jack Sandlin. Carrasco plans to run for the seat, which includes parts of White River and Pleasant townships and part of Marion County, in 2024, she said earlier this year.
Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, currently holds the District 37 seat. District 37 covers most of White River Township, all of Union and Hensley townships, all of Morgan County and parts of Putnam and Owen counties.
All four of Johnson County state representative seats are also up for election in 2024, as the offices have two-year terms.
State Rep. Robb Greene, R-Shelbyville represents District 47, which covers part of White River Township; all of Franklin, Needham, Union, Hensley, Nineveh and Blue River townships; and part of Shelby County. State Rep. Craig Haggard, R-Mooresville, represents District 57, which encompasses part of White River Township and parts of Morgan and Hendricks counties.
State Rep. Michelle Davis holds office in District 58, which is made up of part of White River Township and all of Pleasant and Clark townships. District 60, which covers part of White River Township and parts of Morgan and Monroe counties, is held by State Rep. Peggy Mayfield, R-Martinsville.
County and local offices
Several county offices are up for election in 2024 as well, along with an office in the town of Prince’s Lakes.
Johnson County residents will vote for both Circuit Court and Superior Court 1 judges, each office of which has a six-year term. Current officeholders are Circuit Court Judge Andrew Roesener and Superior Court 1 Judge Kevin Barton, both Republicans.
Magistrate Judge Brandi Foster Kirkendall has already announced her intent to run for Superior Court 1 judge next year.
County residents will also vote for coroner, surveyor and treasurer. One woman, Republican Kimberly Hamilton, has already created a campaign committee to run for treasurer.
Two county commissioner districts are also up next year — Districts 1 and 3.
District 1, which covers the southern third of the county including Trafalgar, Edinburgh and Nineveh, is represented by Republican Brian Baird. Republican Ron West represents District 3, which encompasses the northern third of Johnson County including Greenwood.
Voters in Prince’s Lakes will go back to the polls for the second consecutive year to elect two town council members. In January, the town council voted to move the election of the town’s offices to even-numbered years, while also staggering the terms for when town council seats are up for election.
Under the changes, two town council members will be elected in 2024, while three will be elected in 2026. The positions will continue to be four-year terms, according to town documents.
As a caveat to the changes, the two people who received the lowest amount of votes during this past November’s election will only serve one-year terms. This means Republican incumbents Greg Nelson and Charlie Bourne, who received the lowest votes, will run again for a full term in 2024.
Other elected Prince’s Lakes officials will not have to run again until 2026, as they will be serving three-year terms because of the changes. As part of the changes, the clerk-treasurer election will also be moved to even-numbered years.
Other offices
In the May Primary, voters from across the county will select convention delegates. Republicans will pick about 10 or so delegates from within five numbered districts, while Democrats will select about 36 delegates at-large, according to the Johnson County Clerk’s Office.
Republicans will also select precinct committeemen from all precincts in the primary.
School board seats are also up for election on the general election ballot. Center Grove and Edinburgh schools have two at-large seats up; Clark-Pleasant has a Pleasant Township and an at-large seat up; Franklin has two city seats and one Franklin township seat up and Greenwood has Districts 1 and 3 up.
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson has a Nineveh Township seat and two at-large seats up. For the Nineveh Township seat, only residents from that township vote, according to the clerk’s office.
What to expect
Candidates can begin filling for office on Jan. 10, and the Johnson County Clerk’s office is preparing candidate packets filled with the forms prospective candidates need to file. These forms can start being picked up starting the third week of December, said Trena McLaughlin, county clerk.
But candidates do not have to necessarily get the forms before Jan. 10, she said.
“If they so choose, they can come in prior to filing, get the paperwork and have it already filled out before they come in here,” McLaughlin said. “And that will help process them along and speed things up a little bit quicker for them if they have all their paperwork already filled out.”
The deadline to file for office is Feb. 9 at noon, she said.
As for voting, prospective voters can already go ahead and sign up to register to vote now by going to Voter Registration in the basement of the Johnson County Courthouse or by going to IndianaVoters.com. People who have previously registered can also go online to check if their registration is active, she said.
McLaughlin expects there to be a large number of voters who have not voted recently as many tend to only vote in presidential elections, she said.
Those who want to fill out an application to vote by mail can go online to IndianaVoters.com as well. If someone wants to request a ballot by mail, they should start getting the applications in soon. Absentee ballots can start being mailed out on March 23, McLaughlin said.
“Of course, we can’t process them until our ballots are complete, but if we get those applications ahead of time, we can go ahead and start doing everything that we need to do to get them ready for when we can actually mail out the ballots,” she said.
Next year’s election marks McLaughlin’s second presidential election as clerk. Although things were different in 2020 because of the pandemic, based on McLaughlin’s experience working in the clerk’s office before then, she expects it to be “very, very busy,” she said.
Extra vote centers are expected to be open, and right now officials are working on determining exactly how many they will have, she said. Those who are interested in working the polls should contact their party chairman, McLaughlin said.
For early voting, the courthouse is expected to be open 30 days before the election. McLaughlin encourages people who want to early vote to make sure to come earlier in the 30-day period rather than waiting until a week before the election.
“We will have lines,” she said. “We are diligently already working on what we can do to prepare to make it easy and quick for our voters, but we are definitely going to have a huge turnout.”
There are no planned changes to the county’s voting equipment either. Although a change in state law requires that the county have a paper trail for people’s votes, the county has already been doing that for the last few elections by using VVPAT, or voter-verified paper audit trail, machines, McLaughlin said.
“Voters shouldn’t have any issues voting on our machines at all,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Dec. 11, 2023, after Indianapolis City-County Councilor Keith Potts, a Democrat, dropped out of the U.S. Senate race. More information on this development, as reported by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, can be found by clicking here.
