Indiana holds partisan city elections on November, 2019. An independent candidate for Mayor of Logansport, Terry Doran, complied with the petition requirement, according to local elections officials. But the local Democratic Party challenged his petition because the number of signatures calculated by the election officials was incorrect. See this story.
Democrats in this state just do not support ballot access for independents and third parties. The house leadership has voted against it every time it’s come up recently, I believe. The Indiana Green Party does have six candidates running across the state in the 2019 local elections, so that’s great, but it’d be better to not have to fight tooth and nail to even be an option in the general.
The only comment on the newspaper website is by Jim Brugh, a lawyer in Logansport.
According to the story there are 16 precincts in Logansport, and parts of three others where the city has annexed into surrounding townships. So a candidate would have to get the official canvassed results and know the statute that applies.
Guidance on the SOS website specifically states that candidates should contact their county election board for assistance calculating this number.
It appears that there are no qualification requirements for Democrat or Republican candidates other than filing their candidacy.
If Indiana adopted Top 2 this problem would be eliminated. Better yet would be to have nonpartisan elections for local offices.
Top 1 is much more efficient.