Election 2026: everything you need to know before filing for candidacy
- Nathaniel Smith | Editor-in-Chief
- 6 hours ago
- 16 min read
Yesterday, January 7, was the first day that candidates for the 2026 election were able to file with Election Administrator Stephanie Rockey and her team. That means that election season is officially in full swing. Stephanie Rockey and Danielle Walker recently hosted an “Election Workshop” to help potential candidates understand the ins and outs of the complicated world of politics. Here, you can find everything you need to know before you file for candidacy. But don’t wait too long… February 6 is the deadline to file.
Candidate Requirements
Must be a registered Voter in election district the person seeks to represent
Most offices have different districts throughout the county
Must be a resident in desired district for at least 1 year prior to the general election for most offices
There are special qualifications for some positions (i.e. Assessor must be certified as Level 2 Assessor-Appraiser)
“Make sure to look into the office you plan to run for to see what the requirements are,” said Stephanie Rockey
Must take an oath before assuming duties
“We do, in this county, have oath of offices that have to be in before you can assume the duties of your office,” said Rockey
Cannot hold “two lucrative offices” at the same time
“One way to think about that is, where does your pay come from for those offices? If it's the same pool of money, then you're going to have to resign from one of them because you can't hold both lucrative offices,” Rockey said.
No felony convictions under IC 5-8-3, IC 5-8-2-1, IC 5-8-1-38, IC 35-50-2-7, IC 35-38-1-1.5
Candidate Filings for Primary – 2026 (Most deadlines end at 12 pm)
Must belong to Democratic or Republican Party
“The primary is a race between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Once you go through the primary process, then come the other parties, and everybody then competes for the office in the general election. Sometimes there is confusion on what a primary election is and what a general election is,” said Rockey.
Must file a (CFA-1) Candidate’s Statement of Organization and Designation of Principal Committee or Exploratory Committee.
“If you take in $100, spend it or take in, then you have to have this CFA-1 filed. You have to have a committee open. And I'm not going to track you down. It's up to somebody else to file a complaint with the county election board and say, ‘hey, do they have their committee open?’ It is public record,” said Rockey.
File Declaration of Candidacy (CAN-2)
File State of Economic Interests (CAN-12)
“That's basically like a conflict of interest statement and an economic statement. It's going to ask you about your spouse or any businesses you have in the county. It's just going to basically ask you some personal questions,” said Rockey.
The Election Calendar and election forms can be found on the Indiana Secretary of State: Election Division website: www.in.gov/sos/elections
Rockey explained that the filing location is the Election Voter Services Office within the Washington County Clerk of Courts located at 801 S Jackson St, Salem.
“Once you pass the clerk's office and the courts, you'll go down to the very end of the hallway, take a right into the office, and you'll see Becky. She'll be in there ready to process your paperwork,” said Rockey.
County Offices up for Election
Washington County Offices:
Prosecuting Attorney, 42nd Circuit
Auditor
Recorder
Sheriff
Assessor
Commissioner, District 2
County Council, Districts 1 - 4
Townships:
Trustees
Township Advisory Board Members (3)
Towns:
Town of Campbellsburg
Clerk-Treasurer
Council, At-Large- 1 position
Town of New Pekin
Clerk-Treasurer
Council, At-Large- 1 position
Town of Hardinsburg
Seats to be determined
U.S.:
United States Senator
United States Representative
State Offices:
Secretary of State
State Comptroller (Auditor)
Treasurer of State
State Senator, District 47
Representative, District 65, 69, and 70
Parties:
Republican Delegates (10) At-Large seats
Democratic Delegates- (6) At-Large seats
Democratic Precinct Committeemen
School Boards:
Salem Community Schools
At-Large, 3 positions
East Washington School Corp
Franklin Twp.
Jackson Twp.
Pierce Twp.
West Washington School Corp
Brown Twp.
Howard Twp.
Town of Campbellsburg
(1) At-Large seat
Campaign Ethics
“What the campaigning process is about is for people to get to know you, your positions and your policies,” said Danielle Walker. “And I think Marcia [Grassmyer] was the one that talked about something similar to that. It's about them getting to know what you stand for, what you're going to do when it comes to your time if you were to be elected. So of course, ethics are going to be important when you actually get elected. But a lot of times people are going to be as ethical in their position as they were in their campaign. We also know during campaigning that making decisions can be difficult. There may be a bad choice and a worse choice during a campaign.
“And how do you make those decisions when you really don't have a good choice during a campaign?” continued Walker. “And sometimes, we make those choices because it justifies a means to an end. Like, ‘I'm going to do good for this community when I am in this position. And so what I do to get there might not be something that's as ethical because I look at the end result as a means to an end. I have to beat that other person in the election to be able to do the good that I want to do.’ And then, of course, the idea that unethical campaigning undermines not just someone who's campaigning against you, but it undermines the whole election process. That can be sad because the people who are signing up to do an office, whatever that might be, generally are coming at it from wanting to do the best that they can for their communities. So, one thing that we like to talk about is that campaign ethics are more than just campaign and election laws. And we really look at these as the bare minimum. These are what you have to do. But there are things that you should do and need to do above those. And to find out what the general election and campaign laws are, we're going to look at election division resources, and we're going to consult attorneys and we talk about it. [Stephanie] and I have had lots of frustrations about attorneys and making sure that they understand what those election and campaign laws are. The campaign ethics are about upholding a fair and democratic election process. And I think that's what everybody wants. I don't see anybody in here that doesn't want that to be the case.”
Walker continued by stating that there are three main places where ethical issues arise on the campaign trail. Those are communications, promises, and finance.
Communication:
Be truthful
Avoid deceptive messaging about yourself or your opponent.
Vet your facts and make sure you have a firm understanding of the issues
Keep things relevant
Focus on issues pertaining to the elected position
Avoid name-calling, innuendo or stereotyping
Focus on differentiating yourself from your opponent through clear policies and positions
Honor a fair process
Be willing to debate
Be available to the press
Engage with voters
Give your opponent an opportunity to respond
Avoid whisper-campaigning
Promises:
Be realistic
Don’t overpromise.
Promises should be within the purview of the office you are seeking.
Be transparent
Voters should know to whom and to what you have committed.
Promises should not differ based on the recipient.
Don’t make a promise unless you intend to work towards fulfilling it.
Finance:
Maintain independence from donors
Manage expectations
Follow the laws and then some
Disclose donor information
Do NOT use public resources for campaigning
Avoid conflicts of interest
File reports in a timely manner
Be a good steward
Do not use public resources for campaigning. Sometimes that can be difficult if you work in a public office
Creating a Culture of Ethical Campaigning
Develop a Campaign Code of Conduct
Do not tolerate unethical behavior from staff or volunteers
Ask committee members to hold you accountable
Limit the number of spokespeople
Consider access to social media accounts as well.
Communicate your commitment to ethics
Renounce unethical attacks sponsored by others on your behalf
Additional Resources for Candidates
Election Division Website
Campaign Ethics: A Field Guide
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
Santa Clara University
Here Is Your Indiana Government
The following is a Q&A hosted by Danielle Walker featuring a group of panelists to answer questions and offer advice. These individuals were invited to provide their expertise due to their past election experience. The panel included:
Rhonda Greene
Party Chair
Good Luck With That Party
“I'm Rhonda Greene. We started Indianaproud.com a long time ago in 2007,” said Greene. “And we've been uploading audio and video all of these years. Right now, I'm going through the backlog and trying to put the whole catalog of videos from 2011 until now [on the site]. It gives us a history of how our community has been run by our public officials. We've been involved in politics, my husband and I, for a number of years… Good Luck With That is a political party in the county, and that's more of a demonstration that you can open a political party. You don't have to be a Democrat. You don't have to be a Republican. Good Luck With That. The email for that is upset@whenyourfoodtalksback.com. This is to show that you can open up anything. You don't necessarily have to be a Democrat or Republican. It is an official government political party in Washington County. We're not statewide; we didn't file nationally. In Washington County, Good Luck With That is a political party as a demonstration.”
Tara Coats Hunt (was unable to attend)
Party Chair
Republican Party
Prosecutor
Renee Mather
Party Secretary
Democratic Party
“Hi, I'm Renee Mather. I moved to Salem when I was in second grade. My grandfather moved out here with the Murphy's Company. My grandma worked at the hospital; my mom worked at the bank. And by that point, I knew pretty much everybody in town… I currently serve as the secretary of the Washington County Democrat Party. The chair is Aiden Minton, and the vice chair is Mia Leonard. And our treasurer is Courtney Williams. I'm also chief of staff for Indiana's ninth district Democrats. And since March of this year, I founded the Washington County Community Action Coalition, which is a 501(c)(3), and the Washington County Community Action Network, which is a 501(c)(4) and purchased Teresa Smedley's old office across from Papa John's to create a community hub. There are some names that it's been called online that are incorrect. It is a community service building to connect whatever in our community to whatever in our community. As long as it's not extreme one or the other way, there's a space for you and whatever you're working with. So, voter information, giving information on where the food bank is, where to file for Medicaid, that kind of thing. To help bring connection and life back to some clubs or groups that might need people to know that they're there. The Community Action Network works year round on civic education, voter engagement and community support. My personal work centers on helping people understand how local government works, how to navigate elections, and how to build trusted relationships with others in our community. I know there's a lot of need in our community. And then there are some services that are being cut or that just aren't here yet. And I also know the best people in our community, and I have always seen that no matter if there's an R or a D beside your name or whatever church you go to, people in rural communities like this one step up to help each other. They might gossip about you behind your back too, but they will step up to make sure that you've got a turkey on the table.”
Marcia Grassmyer
Election Board
Republican
“I've been through one primary and part of a general election, so I am not an expert on the election board, but I'm learning so much,” said Grassmyer. “My past experience in politics really is being a judge and an inspector at the polls. And I did that quite a bit… My undergraduate degree was in nursing, and my master's was in hospital administration business. So, I've had to do a lot with budgeting people, finance, and building. If you go by and see the Red Heart and Lung tower, myself and one of the other critical care managers at Jewish in the 90s were responsible for the fourth floor there. So, I know a little bit about building projects. I can do a little bit of this, a little bit of that and a little bit of everything, and I'll show up when you need me.”
Warren Jones
Election Board
Democrat
“I've been on the city council twice. I'm on the Board of Works now and have been for a good number of years. I was president of the redevelopment for 14 years,” said Jones. “I absolutely told them I wouldn't be there for the 15th. Marcia and I have gone through some pretty tough times. The presidential election was the worst I've ever been through. I thought we never would get all the ballots counted and opened. That was a mess. But it's a very interesting job. I've lived in Salem all my life. I was two years old when my parents moved here.”
Stephanie Rockey
Clerk
“I currently hold the role as the county clerk, election administrator, and also I'm a state delegate for the party, and a precinct committeeman for Posey,” said Rockey. “So, in our county, you kind of wear multiple hats. My daughter always says, ‘mom, you're the most unpolitical politician I know.’ In larger counties, there's a completely different election office and administrator, and then someone else kind of runs the court side. In our size county, it's the courts and the elections. So it is wearing multiple hats, and you just kind of have to trudge through it. In our office, I always say, ‘it's not about the party. It's about the process.’ And it has to be solely about the election process.”
Panel Q&A
Q: Can you tell us what a delegate is and how you become one?
A: “You file with your party to run as a delegate and then it will also be on the ballot,” said Rockey. “For instance, we have ten certified seats for our county that we certify with our party chair through the state. And they're all at-large. So, you will have to be a registered voter, and of course, be affiliated with that party. So as a delegate, if you do win in the primary, then you will become certified with the state Republican Party. Of course, there is a fee for that. And then you go up to the convention and you will vote. It's literally almost like primitive voting. They have all the machines there, and you will have your own little secret ballot. But you will vote for your secretary of state, your comptroller, and then it goes through the process because they have to win by a certain majority. So, sometimes you might have one round, you might have two rounds, up to five. They do a little campaign. Each potential candidate that has filed has their own video. So it is an interesting process to do. I've done it several times, and I'm on the fence about doing it again. But it is definitely a sensory overload day.”
Q: Does your party have any requirements for someone to be a delegate? Do you have to be a member of the party for so long? Do you have to attend meetings or just be registered to whichever party you are?
A: “I have that answer for the Democrats,” said Renee Mather. “So on January 7th, you can register to be a precinct chair, and a delegate. They are two separate positions. Precinct chair, you represent that precinct for your political party. If you sign up to be precinct chair and you're elected, you have eight days after being chosen to select your vice chair. If you get chosen as precinct chair and you don't know who to choose for vice chair the chairman of the Democrat Party can appoint someone for you. Recently, the Democrats, the state party, changed the rule. It used to have to be male to female. Now it's just anybody. It doesn't have to be a male to female. Delegate, if you get chosen, you will get to go up to the state party on June 6 and vote for who you want to be for Secretary of State, treasurer, and comptroller. Those people serve all four years.”
“The local party can make requirements,” added Rockey. “I'm just speaking as the secretary of the Republican Party. And of course, the chair is not here, nor the vice chair. But in the past, the requirements were if you were in good standing with that party. Basically, if you have voted Republican in the last two primaries and you were considered in good standing with the committee then you'd be good to run. The precinct committeeman, their role is if someone is holding office and they resign, they pass away or they have to move out of the district, then all precinct committeemen are eligible to vote.”
“It's a very viable thing to apply for. It sounds like you just don't do anything,” Greene said. “But even our local politics – Phil Marshall has been telling people that he wants to resign and retire mid term. So, the committeemen would be responsible to replace him, which would be outside of the electoral process.”
Q: What do you think is the most important thing a candidate can do during their campaign, and what does a successful campaign look like to you?
A: “Tony [Cardwell], I thought, did an excellent job last time,” said Grassmyer. “He was continuously knocking on doors. He was out and greeting people. And I've heard just from talking with different candidates, being available, being visible, and answering questions is very important. What is your expectation of me if I were running? I would expect someone to ask me what I can offer in this position. And then if I offer what you think I should be offering, then, you might decide you are going to vote for me. Or, I might put out there what I think is important, but ask other people for their opinion. And so I think just being able to hear what the people want, and then say what you can do for them and see if the two meld. And answer people directly. There's nothing I hate more on a candidate than verbal diarrhea. Just going around and around and around and never answering the question.”
“I think one of the worst things you can do is make a bunch of campaign promises that you can't keep,” said Warren Jones. “City officials, let's just say like the city council, a lot of people will say, ‘well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that.’ No, you can't do that unless you've got the other four with you. You've got to have the whole council agree with what you have to say. And a lot of people make a mistake by saying, ‘I'm going to do this.’ Well, no they didn't. You’ve got to have everybody go with you on anything that's done. I was lucky when I was on the city council. We had a group of people that worked together, and we got quite a bit done. But there are some that haven't succeeded so well.”
“Along with what Warren said you're being elected to be the voice of the people who are choosing to elect you,” said Mather. “It's not your opinion only that you're representing. It's the people who said, ‘I want you to speak for me.’ And I think that's the most important thing you can remember. You may have a great idea, I may have a great idea, but it's not about me. It's what's best for your community and what the will of the people is, not your will. I was actively told not to go door to door when I ran previously. They said, ‘oh, it won't make a difference.’ I would undo that in a heartbeat if I were to run again. So, if I were to do it again, which I am not, I would maybe hold little community parties or like how they do the pop up taco trucks, and I'd say, ‘hey, I'm a candidate, and I've got a few candidates with me, and I'm coming to this neighborhood. If you have time to come talk to us, we'll be here for a couple hours. We want to touch base and see if you're registered to vote.’ We have got to bring the unity back to our community and have conversations again. I don't care what letters are next to your name. But seeing people and knowing what matters to them -- what do they actually feel? It's not everything that you hear on the TV. It is not everything that the news portrays.”
“The Libertarian Party was the second party in Washington County for a number of years because the Democrats were not active. And that's all right. It was just one of those things,” said Greene. “Max [Greene] and I a lot of times get 20% of the vote, even though we're libertarian and not Democrat or Republican. And the way we would handle the campaign and our people is that whenever we signed up, we'd have a meeting. We'd have a notary public right there. We'd fill out all the forms, get everybody on the same page, make copies and send it off in an email to Stephanie. And if there was a problem, then we would go ahead and deal with it that way, which we've had problems before. So, you try to go ahead and get everybody together, and I'm speaking as a chairman or what have you. Get everybody together on the same page so that it's not hard. So that you're not looking at it in your living room and saying, well, what do I need for this? Just have a party, and do that same thing with the financials. Say, 'the financials are due this day. This is how you keep track of it. We'll go ahead and go over it.' I've got a wireless scanner. It is so cool. Put those things in and email them all to Stephanie. We did that with the Democrat Party.”
“And when you're running for office, make sure you know what you statutorily can do in your office. One of the best guides is the AIC manual that I have,” said Rockey.
Q: What's one thing that you wish you knew before you started running your campaign?
A: “I would tell myself to Focus on the topics that apply to what I'm running for,” Mather said. “Not to sound offensive, but abortion isn't going to come up if I'm running for city council. That's a wild example, but we can get so focused on what a Republican or a Democrat or independent tends to focus on. And a topic like that doesn't apply to Salem or Washington County necessarily. And so knowing what the topics are that I am running to make a difference or have a voice on, and focusing on those while communicating what people want to see within those things. I think there's just a huge lack of education when it comes to who gets to make the choices for things in our community. And that was a huge learning curve for me too, because I had my politics box in the corner of my table, and that's where I left it. I have my opinions right there, and I don't feel like talking about it. And it was because I didn't want to be embarrassed to not know what I didn't know. I knew why I had an opinion, I didn't always know how to voice it. And I think a lot of people feel similarly. And so the more fear we can take out of politics or running or having an opinion – if you go online and you look at what everybody's griping about half the time, they're upset at somebody who has nothing to do with the problem. And yet they may even be able to run for what they have the problem for and they don't know it. And so anytime we can bring that education or if I had myself known more my first time running, I think it would have gone better for me.”
“I think if you're well known, that helps you as much as anything,” said Warren. “Preston [Shell] here, he and I went to school together. We've known each other forever. And once you've lived in the community as long as he and I have lived in this community, people know you and they either like you or they don't like you. If they don't like you, they aren't going to vote for you. I don't care who you are.”
For further information regarding elections and candidacy, contact the Election and Voter Services office at:
(812) 883-5748 ext. 1128