A Marion County judge has ordered the Marion County Election Board to put Lindsey Cornett back on the November ballot for the Indianapolis Public Schools board, ruling that a candidate who wrongly claims a party label loses the label — not the candidacy.
Marion Superior Court Judge John M.T. Chavis II issued the findings of fact and conclusions of law Friday in Cornett v. Marion County Election Board, Cause No. 49D05-2608-MI-045720.
The ruling is the first court interpretation of the party-affiliation provision in Senate Enrolled Act 287, the 2025 law that for the first time let school board candidates run with a party label. It also rejects guidance the Indiana Election Division has given county boards since last year.
Under the law, a school board candidate claiming a major-party affiliation must have voted in that party’s two most recent Indiana primaries or obtain certification from the county party chair. Cornett, a first-time candidate for the District 4 seat, claimed Democratic affiliation on her petition of nomination. Her voting record shows she voted in the 2026 Democratic primary but not the 2024 primary.
Bryan Regules challenged her petition on July 1. At an August 10 hearing, Cornett conceded she had voted in only one Indiana primary and had no certification from the county Democratic chair. The Election Board sustained the challenge and struck her from the ballot. She filed as a write-in candidate the next day and filed her petition for judicial review on August 14.
Chavis held that removal was not an available remedy. Indiana Code § 3-8-2.5-7(f) says a candidate’s claimed affiliation goes on the ballot unless a challenger makes the showing required by subsection (e); the court concluded that when a challenge succeeds, the consequence is that the label is omitted and nothing more. The order notes that the only provision in the school board chapter authorizing removal from the ballot applies to candidates who move out of the district and do not withdraw.
The court also held that the general candidacy statute’s “deny the filing” remedy, Indiana Code § 3-8-1-2(h), does not reach affiliation challenges, and that claiming a party is one of several options a school board candidate may elect rather than a requirement of candidacy.
The Election Board had relied on written guidance from the Indiana Election Division. The division’s 2025 election legislation summary and page 105 of its 2026 Candidate Guide both state that a Democratic or Republican school board candidate who claims a party without the primary voting history or a chair’s certification can be challenged and removed from the ballot. The board sought clarification in July, and the division’s co-general counsel repeated that position in an August 5 response.
Chavis found the guidance advisory only and not binding on county boards, citing Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, and noted the Candidate Guide itself says statutory language governs any inconsistency.
The order directs the board to list Cornett on the November 3 ballot with a blank space after her name, as provided in Indiana Code § 3-11-13-11(d), and states that her write-in filing is superseded.
The order also addresses Chris Bultman, who was appointed to the District 4 seat and was running unopposed until Cornett filed. Bultman voted in the 2026, 2020 and 2018 Democratic primaries but not in 2024. The board rejected a separate challenge to his petition, filed by Isaiah Tworek, and kept him on the ballot as a Democrat.
The court found both candidates’ records fail the same test, that the board reached opposite results on the same record, and that no reasoned basis for the difference appears in that record. It quoted Board Chair Nolita Stewart at the hearing saying the second case seemed cleaner than the first.
Chavis declined to disturb the Bultman decision, finding the court without jurisdiction because Cornett filed no challenge to Bultman’s petition and the statutory deadline has passed.
Elections Director Patrick Becker said in an affidavit that absentee ballots must be mailed by September 19 and that a ballot change ordered after September 11 could take up to two weeks to implement.
