Good afternoon.

I call the Marion County Election Board meeting here to order May 21st at 103 p.m.

Before we get started, we'll do a round of introduction to the uh around the table, starting with the board, uh staff, and then counsel, uh start with myself, Nolita Stewart, Chair, Jennifer Ping, Vice Chair, Kate Sweeney Bell, Secretary.

Patrick Becker, Director of Elections, Brad Boswell, outside counsel.

Stephanie Go, I know that council.

Adam Wicker Corporation Council.

Okay, okay.

Thank you guys.

Um again, we have very specific topic to cover today, and so just for everyone here, we will go through the topic, uh, but just to be clear, we will have no public comments for this topic today.

Um the topic on the agenda is around a potential election law violation.

Uh Director Becker, I'll ask you to share with the teams uh any the information you have on this topic.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um so I will uh try to provide a timeline of what we know to be true at this point.

Um in November, uh November 5th of 2024 on general election day.

Um Secretary of State Diego Morales visited the Marion County Election Board Service Center, uh, accompanied by Secretary of State employees and was there on an official visit to observe the um administration of the election, um, you know, our operations on election day and specifically the central count of the absentee ballots.

Um there was a uh post made to the Secretary of State Facebook page thanking volunteers at the Marion County Service Center on November 5th, and then on November 6, 2024, Secretary Morales also shared uh video from November 5th that included his visit to the Marion County Election Board Service Center on May 1st of 2025.

Uh Secretary Morales posted a campaign video to uh his Diego for Indiana uh website as well as other social media channels.

The video contains footage of the Marion County Election Board staff and volunteers at the service center from election day on November 5th, 2024, where the absentee ballots are being processed and tabulated at the central county facility.

And in the video, Secretary Morales is seen talking to volunteers who are in the process of processing those ballots.

The footage was shared by um the footage or parts of the the images that were shared in 2024 or the same images that were shared in 2025 on that video.

On May 7th of 2025, uh Clerk Bell sent a letter in her capacity as clerk to Secretary Morales, respectfully requesting the video no longer be used and shared and requested that that be done by May 12th.

Uh we received a response from the general counsel, the Secretary of State's office on May 8th, and then um on May 16th, uh we forwarded that letter as well to the Secretary of State's uh campaign email address as well.

Um it was our understanding that they wanted that uh officially sent to the uh campaign email, and so we did that as well.

Um and at this point, I I don't really have any other um uh I I should uh yeah I the the letter was forwarded May 16, 2025 uh to the campaign, and and at this point I don't have any other information really to share with the board um other than um what I've detailed here.

Okay.

Any questions or follow-ups from the board?

Uh yeah, I do.

The it was brought to my attention that our staff, our volunteers were in a campaign video, and um I certainly hope that Secretary Morales shares the concern that I had, and um in a non-confrontational and respectful way, I requested that the video uh the portions of the video be removed.

I sent that out and uh not thinking that there would be any issue that oh yeah, we'll we'll fix that right away.

And that didn't happen.

Um so the Secretary of State's office said, hey, that's out of our purview.

That's their response.

That's their response in you know, I'm paraphrasing there.

Um so the they were they responded to some media inquiries or a media inquiry that I know about and uh so they did receive my correspondence, and as of I the last I checked was I think Monday, and the video is still up.

So the I don't know if it's simple editing or if it is they'll get around to it when they want to get around to it, I would like to know more, and that's why I'm requesting that uh under Title III, and Brad, maybe you can go into this a little bit, uh I want to know what our options are and responsibilities.

I mean, I I know already what my opinion is, but I think we need the benefit of uh the law to help guide us here.

So if the board believes that it's possible or likely that a election law, so some uh you know a violation under Title III has occurred, Title III says that the election board must investigate that potential violation.

So the question is do we believe a violation or do you believe a violation has occurred and what that violation might be?

So I think that's the discussion or question before you.

Uh council, could maybe you have it.

Can you state or read what the statute actually says?

Yeah, Daniel has a copy of it actually.

Do you want to say?

It might be teraphree.

I can give you the actual statute.

Yeah.

Section 17.

Yeah, 17, 17.

Oh no, not that one.

We're looking at this.

Yeah, sorry, thank you.

If a county election board determines that there is a substantial reason to believe an election law violation has occurred, it shall expedit expeditiously make an investigation.

If in the judgment of the board, after affording due notice and an opportunity for a hearing a person has engaged in or is about to engage in an act or practice that constitute or will constitute a violation of a provision of this title or of a rule or order issued under this title, the board shall take the action it considers appropriate under the circumstances, including referring the matter to the attorney general or the appropriate prosecuting attorney.

So I think at this point in time, where we are today is really the first sentence.

If a county election board determines that there is a substantial reason to believe an election law violation has occurred, it shall expeditiously make an investigation.

I think that's where we are in sort of the timeline at this point.

Um it was said pretty quickly, but um counsel, could you I I know in the the the correspondence that was sent to Secretary Morales, um it uh there was a uh a code site that was that was named there of what the violation um appears to to be.

Could we restate that for us right now?

Yes, that is 314117, and that's a pretty expansive um section.

I will paraphrase it as saying um it is a uh misdemeanor um if in the first instance it can be a felony if it's happened multiple times, but for a government employee to use the resources and property of the government employees office for the purpose of partisan campaign activities.