The Secretary of State race is shaping up as one of Indiana’s marquee contests this year, even without a governor’s race, U.S. Senate contest, or presidential election at the top of the ballot.
Libertarian Party candidate Lauri Shillings is seeking the office that oversees elections, business services, securities, and auto dealer licensing. She’s running against Democrat Beau Bayh, Republican Max Engling, and Lincoln Party candidate and former Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard.
Shillings is framing her campaign as a working‑class alternative to what she calls the “regular system” dominated by the two major parties. She says she has been crisscrossing the state talking with Republicans, Democrats, independents, and Libertarians who want someone outside traditional party leadership.
She argues that many voters are looking for a candidate who lives like they do, not someone tied too closely to corporate or party power structures. Shillings says people tell her they want “someone who is part of the working class of Indiana, who understands how they live their life” and who represents their interests “instead of some giant corporation or a party leader.”
Election integrity and voter ID
On elections, Shillings says Indiana’s current system is largely sound and that actual voter fraud is minimal. She points to the current Secretary of State’s office, which she says uncovered just one instance of voter fraud despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate.
She supports Indiana’s voter ID requirement and argues that existing safeguards make many of the loudest concerns about “dead voters” or non‑citizens on the rolls more political than practical. Registered voters, she notes, must identify themselves to register and present valid identification at the polls.
Where she sees room for improvement is transparency. The state conducts post‑election audits of selected counties, but Shillings says the public rarely gets a clear explanation of what was examined, whether any problems were found, and how they were resolved. She says the Secretary of State’s office should be more open about how audits work and quicker to tell voters either what went wrong or, when appropriate, that the system worked as intended.
Shillings also highlights a long‑running friction point in Indiana politics: college student IDs. Under current law, photo IDs used to vote must be government‑issued and include an expiration date, which disqualifies many college IDs. She supports voter ID but wants a practical fix, suggesting either pushing colleges to add expiration dates to their IDs or allowing students to obtain temporary state identification through the BMV so they can vote where they actually live during the school year.
Ballot access and political competition
Ballot access has become a recurring controversy in Indiana, from signature fights to recount commissions. Shillings says these battles underscore how difficult it can be for challengers and third parties to get in front of voters.
She argues that Republicans and Democrats have built in hurdles to maintain their power, while Libertarians have spent more than three decades fighting to secure and preserve ballot access in Indiana. She says more choices on the ballot are good for voters and calls competition “healthy.”
Recent recount disputes, including razor‑thin races where a handful of votes determined the outcome, have fueled further debate. Shillings says close races will always shift somewhat once ballots are examined more closely, but she warns against using voters’ social media activity as a basis to challenge ballots, calling that a First Amendment concern.
She also rejects the idea that new entrants like Ballard’s Lincoln Party simply “take votes” from Libertarians or Republicans. In her view, “people vote for who they want to vote for. We don’t take votes away. We earn them,” and any candidate on the ballot could be accused of drawing support away from someone else.
Modernization and the Libertarian stakes
Beyond elections, Shillings says the Secretary of State’s office needs a serious technology upgrade. She describes the current online portals for business filings, political paperwork, and elections as “archaic” and frustrating for users who often have to bounce between multiple sites and forms to get basic tasks done.
Her plan includes creating a unified elections portal where voters could quickly see who is on their ballot, who is donating to those campaigns, and how money flows through political action committees—all in one digital, searchable place. She argues that kind of transparency would make it easier for Hoosiers to follow the money and hold candidates accountable.
For the Libertarian Party, this race carries additional weight. The Secretary of State contest is the party’s ballot access race. Libertarians need at least 2 percent of the statewide vote to keep automatic ballot access for the next four years, which directly affects local and down‑ballot Libertarian candidates across Indiana.
Shillings points to her decades of experience in business, marketing, and community leadership—as well as a family background in public service—as reasons voters should take a look at her bid. She says she wants to bring a “heart of community service” to the office and make sure “the everyday people of Indiana are well represented,” casting her run as a chance to serve rather than a political stepping stone.
