How to Fill Early Ballot Vacancies

If you have some ballot vacancies on your primary ballot, that doesn’t mean you can’t go ahead and recruit potential candidates for those vacancies to run in the general election.

After the primary, you can fill a ballot vacancy for a general election until a predetermined deadline (check the Indiana Election Division's Election Calendar Brochure for the exact date). This can be done in one of two ways: a caucus of the eligible precinct committeemen or, if your county party has a resolution authorizing the county chair or four county party officers to fill an early ballot vacancy, the county chair or county party officers can fill it.  (IC 3-13-1-6).

If you hold a caucus to fill the early ballot vacancy the Indiana Republican State Committee rules for caucus are to be followed.

In addition, the following forms must be submitted:

Forms CAN-29 and CAN-12 must be filed with the county clerk’s office within 3 business days of the caucus and not after predetermined deadline (check the Indiana Election Division's Election Calendar Brochure for the exact date). 

These forms can be found on the Indiana Election Division website here: https://www.in.gov/sos/elections/election-administrators-portal/election-forms/

Those eligible to vote in the caucus are (IC 3-13-1-10 and 3-13-1-11.5):

  • Precinct committeemen who represent a portion of the election district where the vacancy exists.

  • ​Precinct committeemen who have been in their precinct position for a minimum of 30 days.

  • Vice precinct committeemen are eligible to vote if the precinct committeeman has filled out the required proxy form and if the vice precinct committeeman has been in their precinct position for a minimum of five (5) days if their precinct committeeman was elected or thirty (30) days if their precinct committeeman was appointed. 

If your county party does not have a resolution authorizing the county chairman or the four officers to fill early ballot vacancies and you would like to have a resolution, the county chair would need to call a meeting of precinct committeemen and vice committeemen.  At the meeting, the precinct committeemen and the vice committeemen are to vote on authorizing the county chairman or county officers to fill an early ballot vacancy. The county party secretary is to send a copy of the following to the Indiana Republican Party Secretary, no later than 30 days after the meeting:

  • The filled out resolution.

  • ​The sign- in sheet of participating precinct and vice precinct committeemen.

  • The minutes from the meeting.

When filling the vacancy via a resolution, CAN forms 29 and 12 must be presented to the county clerk’s office within 3 days of the ballot vacancy being filled and not after a predetermined deadline (check the Indiana Election Division's Election Calendar Brochure for the exact date).