By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — A Republican candidate running for Indiana Secretary of State said during a campaign stop in Warsaw on Saturday that she wants to revamp how Indiana elections are conducted to align more closely with the Constitution.
Jamie Reitenour met with a small group at the Warsaw Community Public Library and said she wants to pass legislation that would eliminate early voting, mail-in voting, and have all ballots counted that day at the grassroots level.
She said she also wants to eliminate the use of vote centers, which Kosciusko County and most other Indiana counties have adopted, in part, because it allows registered voters to cast ballots anywhere in the county instead of one assigned location.
Reitenour is one of two announced challengers to incumbent Secretary of State Diego Morales seeking the Republican nomination through a party convention this summer. Several Democratic Party candidates are also lining up to run through their convention.
Reitenour earned a bachelor’s degree from Southwest Missouri State University, and her career includes working as a mortgage broker and a compliance manager. She and her husband have five children who are homeschooled.
She ran for governor in 2024, finishing fifth among six candidates in the Republican primary.
Morales is finishing his first term in office.
The other announced Republican candidate is David Shelton, who was elected Knox County Clerk in 2018 and also serves as the Knox County Republican Party Chair.
Saturday’s event attracted eight people, plus two more who showed up near the end of the discussion.
Six of those ten people said they were running on the Republican ballot on May 5 in hopes of serving as delegates at the convention, which will be June 20 in Fort Wayne.
Reitenour contends that Morales promised to support legislation requiring the use of paper ballots but did not follow through.
She was joined by a representative of Citizens Coalition for Legislative Accountability, who cast doubt on the reliability of voting machines.
She also argues that widespread use of voting machines in recent years has coincided with a decrease in voter participation.
She was asked whether she’s concerned that eliminating early voting and mail-in voting would further suppress turnout.
“I really don’t see how people can make an argument that it wouldn’t produce more people coming out because you’re driving everyone to one time to where everybody is in the same place at the same time,” she said. “There’s a really good argument that just that alone would increase people’s desire to get out and be heard.”
She said she believes the secretary of state should have a more direct role in election policy, much of which is currently controlled by the Indiana Election Division and the Indiana Election Commission.
She also supports making Election Day a holiday.
She talked for an hour about election issues and her background, but avoided discussing controversial issues involving Morales over trips out of the country and the hiring of a relative to a six-figure job in the Secretary of State’s office.
She said voters are angry, tired, oppressed, and overtaxed, and said, “The last thing they need is a voice that’s trying to rival the political rat race with your typical political talk.”
