Election filing begins Wednesday in Kosciusko County

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — While the May primary election is about five months away, candidate filing begins Wednesday, Jan. 7, and ends at noon Friday, Feb. 6.

Kosciusko County offices on the ballot for the 2026 primary include judges of Kosciusko Superior Courts I, II, III and IV, currently held by Karin McGrath, Torrey Bauer, Chad Miner and Christopher Kehler, respectively.

The 54th Judicial District prosecuting attorney, currently Brad Voelz, is up for election, as are the county positions of auditor, Alyssa Schmucker, incumbent; recorder, Deb Wright, incumbent; sheriff, Jim Smith, incumbent; assessor, Gail Chapman, incumbent; and southern district county commissioner, Bob Conley, incumbent. Wright and Conley have already announced they will seek re-election.

The four district seats for Kosciusko County Council are up this year. Those include District 1, Kimberly Cates incumbent; District 2, Joe Irwin; District 3, Tony Ciriello; and District 4, Dave Wolkins. Irwin, Ciriello and Wolkins have announced they will seek re-election.
At the township level, all trustees and three seats per township of the advisory board are up for election in 2026.

Then at the town level, Milford will have its clerk-treasurer (Tricia Gall, incumbent) and three at-large council seats (Doug Ruch, Ken Long and James Smiley, incumbents) up for election.

The two at-large Syracuse Town Council seats, currently held by Paul Stoelting and Larry Siegel, are up this year, as are the Winona Lake District 3 (Jim Lancaster, incumbent) and District 5 (Jason Zaugg, incumbent) positions.

Also on the primary ballots will be the precinct committeemen for the Democratic Party, and the state convention delegates for the Republican and Democratic Parties.

School Boards

Election of school board offices will appear only on the November 2026 ballot. Filing for those begins May 15, 2026, and ends on June 18, 2026, at noon.

This year, Districts 1, 2, 5 and 7 for Warsaw Community Schools is up.
Tippecanoe Valley Schools will have an election for District 3 – Kosciusko County and Districts 4 and 5 – Fulton County.

Wa-Nee Schools will have board races for Harrison, Locke and Union Townships in Elkhart County.

Wawasee Community Schools elections will be for District 1 – Tippecanoe Township; District 2 – Turkey Creek Township; and District 3 – Van Buren Township and Jefferson 3.
Two districts are up for Whitko Community Schools. They are District 4 – Jackson, Monroe and Washington Townships in Kosciusko County and District 5 – Richland and Cleveland Townships in Whitley County.

The three districts up for election for Triton School Board will be District 1 – Tippecanoe Township in Marshall County, District 2 – Etna Township in Kosciusko County and District 4 – the town of Bourbon in Marshall County.

For more information about the elections and topics of interest, click on the Kosciusko County website at www.kosciusko.in.gov; click on the Menu button and then hit the “Elections” tab.