Dubois County Clerk waiting on word regarding federal election changes

With the shakeup on the Democratic nomination for president recently, County Clerk Amy Kippenbrock is holding her breath as she prepares for the upcoming election.

Kippenbrock said she immediately emailed the Indiana Election Division for guidance after President Biden made his announcement. Then an email was sent out to all the clerks in the state from Brad King, a co-director on the Indiana Election Division,

“It said that just because a candidate wins on the primary ballot in Indiana, that doesn’t grant them access automatically to the general election ballot,” Kippenbrock said. “It it dictates to the delegates of that party on how they should support candidates when they go to their conventions.”

Under Indiana law, she has until September 10 to have the ballot finalized, but it’s up to the Indiana Democratic Party Delegates to determine who will replace President Joe Biden on the ballot. Currently, Vice President Kamala Harris has the Indiana delegates’ support for that nomination.

However, the Democratic National Convention isn’t set to occur until August 19 through 21 in Chicago, when the nomination is typically affirmed. According to an NPR story, the DNC has stated they will hold a virtual vote as early as next week to speed up the process, and the nominee will have to pick a running mate by August 7.

“Once the Democrat Convention is held next month, at the end of that convention, they’ll present their candidate, I suppose to all states, but I know to Indiana at that point, and that’s what the Indiana Election Division will certify and send out to all county clerk’s on how they populate their ballots,” Kippenbrock said.

She said that the question she has heard from other clerks is whether this switch disenfranchised voters in the primary.

“The response we’re getting from the Election Division is that it’s (the primary) to educate the delegates that go to the convention,” Kippenbrock said.

Indiana law requires the state party chair to certify to the election division the names of the nominees for president and vice president of the major parties, as chosen by the national party convention delegates.

It’s not unprecedented for these switches to happen after the primary. In 2016, Mike Pence won the GOP nomination in the gubernatorial primary with 815,699 votes. That July, he dropped out of the gubernatorial race after being chosen by Donald Trump as his running mate. The party ultimately selected Governor Eric Holcomb, Pence’s lieutenant governor at the time, to replace him on the ticket.

Kippenbrock and her office send in the county-level nominees, but the state sends down the state and federal nominees for the ballot. Usually, she likes to have the ballot finalized in early August. Once the state certifies the ballot, she has about four weeks to “build a ballot, proof the ballot, set up our machines, hold public tests,” she said. “Everything that has to be done before early voting starts on October 8.”