FINANCE REPORT FEUD: Morales’ office denies Ballard campaign’s accusation of being blocked from filing

April 18, 2026 - 08:28

A missed campaign finance deadline has sparked a public feud between Greg Ballard’s gubernatorial campaign and the office of Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales. The Ballard campaign asserts it was improperly blocked from filing its mandatory first-quarter fundraising report through the state's official online portal, forcing a last-minute public release of the figures via press release.

Campaign officials claim repeated attempts to access the Indiana Election Division's electronic filing system were unsuccessful as the deadline approached. This alleged technical obstruction, they argue, prevented the formal submission of their financial disclosure. The campaign contends this represents a significant administrative failure impacting the transparency of the electoral process.

In a sharp rebuttal, a spokesperson for Secretary Morales’s office has firmly denied the accusations. The office stated that the state's filing system was fully operational and experienced no outages or access issues around the reporting deadline. They emphasized that all other statewide campaigns managed to file their reports without incident through the established portal.

This disagreement places the mechanics of election administration under scrutiny. The Ballard campaign's decision to publicize its numbers independently ensures the information is available to voters, but the conflict raises questions about the integrity and reliability of the state's official reporting infrastructure. Both sides remain at an impasse, with the campaign insisting on an investigation into the alleged access problems and the Secretary of State's office maintaining that all systems functioned correctly for all users.