Running for office in Tipton County, Indiana.

The short version.

Tipton County, IN has 11,250 active registered voters across 15 precincts, as of August 2026.

A plain-language guide to how county ballot access works in every one of Indiana's 92 counties. Be honest with yourself about the calendar first: every candidate-initiated route onto the November 3, 2026 ballot is already shut. The primary declaration closed February 6, 2026, the petition of nomination closed June 30, and the last door of all, the write-in declaration, shut at noon on Monday, July 6, 2026. Nothing reopens before November. The next election you can actually file for is Indiana's 2027 municipal cycle, and filing for it opens Wednesday, January 6, 2027. Click the map or use the list.

Indiana runs its city and town elections in odd-numbered years and everything else in even-numbered years, which is why a state with an election every November still has months where no door is open. Candidate paperwork goes to the county election board at the county seat, and in practice that means the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court. Some counties also run a separate board of voter registration, and a petition of nomination has to start there rather than with the clerk, so the contact card on this page names the office that actually takes your filing.

This page covers that for Tipton County and points you at your local election office for anything specific to your county. It is not legal advice; the official rules live with your election office and the Indiana Election Division.

Tipton County by the numbers.

Indiana election calendar (2026).

Indiana runs one statewide election calendar for every county. The dates below come from the Indiana Election Code and from the Indiana Election Division's own 2026 publications. Read the 2026 dates as history and the 2027 dates as the plan.

• Fri Feb 6, 2026, noonDeadline to file a declaration of candidacy for the May primary, form CAN-2. Closed. This was the main road onto the 2026 ballot and it shut in the winter.
• Tue May 5, 2026Primary election. Already held.
• Tue Jun 30, 2026, noonDeadline for the first step of a petition of nomination, which is filed with the county voter registration office so the signatures can be checked. Closed.
• Fri Jul 3, 2026, noonDeadline for a political party to act to fill a ballot vacancy. Closed. Note that this is the party's own internal deadline and it did not move, even though the paperwork deadline below did.
• Mon Jul 6, 2026, noonTHE LAST 2026 DOOR, NOW CLOSED. Deadline to file a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, form CAN-3, and to file ballot-vacancy paperwork on form CAN-31. Indiana Code 3-13-1-15(c) states this as a fixed calendar date of July 3, but July 4 fell on a Saturday in 2026, Friday July 3 was the observed state holiday, and Indiana Code 3-5-4-1.5 rolled any filing made with a government office to noon on the next open day.
• Wed Jul 15, 2026, noonDeadline for the certified second step of a petition of nomination, forms CAN-19 and CAN-20. Closed.
• Mon Aug 3, 2026, noonDeadline for a minor party to certify small-town convention nominees, form CAN-16. Closed.
• Tue Nov 3, 2026General election.
• Wed Jan 6, 2027THE NEXT DOOR OPENS. First day to file a declaration of candidacy for the 2027 municipal primary, form CAN-42. This is the filing window to plan for.
• Fri Feb 5, 2027, noonLast day to file for the 2027 municipal primary. Indiana Code 3-8-2-4 and 3-8-2-6 set the window as 118 to 88 days before the primary.
• Tue May 4, 2027Municipal primary election.
• Tue Nov 2, 2027Municipal general election. The people elected take office on January 1, 2028 for four-year terms.

These dates are set by the Indiana Election Code and apply statewide. Two things they do not tell you: which county offices appear on your county's ballot in any given year, and whether a particular city or town has moved its elections off the odd-year cycle. Both are county-level facts. Confirm them with the county election board listed on this page before you rely on any of it.

Offices on the ballot in Tipton County.

Indiana splits its offices across the even-year and odd-year calendars. The November 3, 2026 ballot is the even-year one.

• Mayor, clerk-treasurer and common council in each city in Tipton County, plus town council and clerk-treasurer in each town, and city or town judge where that court exists. These are the 2027 municipal offices. Filing opens January 6, 2027 and closes at noon on February 5, 2027.
• County offices in Tipton County are elected in even-numbered years and are NOT on the 2027 municipal ballot. Indiana Code 3-10-2-13 assigns them to years by when the sitting terms expire rather than by any rule, and the pattern varies from county to county, so this page does not print a list. The Indiana Election Division's own instruction to counties is to reference the 2022 election cycle. Ask the office below for Tipton County's list.
• Township offices, including township trustee and township board, which are elected on the even-year county calendar rather than with the cities and towns.
• School board seats in the school corporations covering Tipton County. These are nonpartisan, they are elected in even-numbered years, and their terms are staggered, so only some seats are up in any given year.
• In a small number of Indiana municipalities the city or town has moved its elections to even-numbered years by ordinance under Indiana Code 3-10-6.5. There is no published statewide list of which ones, so ask the office below whether any municipality in Tipton County is on the even-year cycle.

Statewide and legislative seats covering Tipton County are on the same ballot:

• United States Representative. All 9 Indiana congressional seats are elected every 2 years.
• United States Senator is NOT on the Indiana ballot in 2026. Neither of Indiana's two Senate seats is up this cycle, and the Indiana Election Division has told counties so directly.
• Governor is not on the ballot either. Indiana elects a Governor in presidential years, so the next one is 2028.
• Secretary of State, State Comptroller and Treasurer of State, which Indiana elects together in midterm years.
• State Representative. All 100 Indiana House seats are elected every 2 years.
• State Senator. Indiana's 50 Senate districts run on staggered 4-year terms, so only about half are on the ballot in any given year. Check whether yours is one of them.
• Judicial retention questions on the Court of Appeals, which are statewide or district-wide rather than county questions.
• Two statewide public questions: a constitutional amendment on denying bail where the accused is found to pose a substantial risk to another person, and a constitutional amendment requiring city and town court judges to live in the county where the court sits or in the nearest bordering county.

Which county offices appear on your 2026 ballot is genuinely a county question, and no statewide list of it exists. Indiana Code 3-10-2-13 says only that county officers are elected at the general election before their terms expire, and it assigns no years at all. The Indiana Election Division's own guidance to county officials in December 2025 was to reference the 2022 election cycle to work out what should be on the 2026 ballot, with two exceptions it named: US Senate is not on the 2026 Indiana ballot, and judges elected in 2022 serve six-year terms so they are not up again this year. Two neighbouring counties' own published 2026 lists genuinely disagree with each other about which offices they are filling. Ask the office on this page rather than assuming.

How to get on the ballot.

Indiana offers four routes onto a ballot. All four are shut for November 3, 2026. The first one below reopens in January 2027.

Municipal candidacy in 2027. The filing window opens Wednesday, January 6, 2027.

This is the live opportunity, and for anyone reading this in 2026 it is the only one. Indiana holds city and town elections in odd-numbered years under Indiana Code 3-10-6-2 and 3-10-6-5, and the 2027 cycle covers mayor, clerk-treasurer, common council, town council, and city or town judge where that court exists. Filing opens Wednesday, January 6, 2027 and closes at noon on Friday, February 5, 2027, on form CAN-42, with the county election board.

Primary declaration. Closed at noon on Friday, February 6, 2026.

The ordinary route: file a declaration of candidacy on form CAN-2 with the county election board and run in the May 5, 2026 primary. Indiana Code 3-8-2-4 sets the window as 118 to 88 days before the primary. There is no filing fee. The requirement that actually disqualifies people is the statement of economic interests, and Indiana Code 3-8-9-6 directs the circuit court clerk to reject a declaration that arrives without it.

Petition of nomination. Closed June 30 and July 15, 2026.

The route for a candidate with no party primary behind them. It runs in two steps and both are gone: signatures had to reach the county voter registration office by noon on June 30, 2026 for checking, and the certified petition had to be filed on forms CAN-19 and CAN-20 by noon on July 15, 2026. Note the first step goes to the voter registration office rather than to the clerk, which catches people out.

Write-in declaration. Closed at noon on Monday, July 6, 2026.

In most states the write-in declaration is the door that stays open into the autumn. In Indiana it is not, and this is the single most important thing on this page. Indiana Code 3-8-2-4(b) contains no day-count at all; it points at Indiana Code 3-13-1-15(c), which fixes the deadline as a calendar date, noon on July 3 before election day. In 2026 that rolled forward to Monday July 6 because July 4 fell on a Saturday and the Friday was the observed state holiday. Either way it was mid-summer, and an Indiana write-in campaign begun in August is not a campaign, it is a spoiled ballot.

Ballot vacancy. Closed July 3 and July 6, 2026.

Where a party had no candidate for an office, or its nominee left the ballot, the party's own committee could fill the vacancy. Two deadlines applied and they were not the same day: the party had to act by noon on Friday July 3, 2026, because the state-holiday rollover in Indiana Code 3-5-4-1.5 covers filings made with a government office and not a party's internal action, while the resulting CAN-31 paperwork was due at noon on Monday July 6, 2026.

Statutory references: Indiana charges no filing fee for county or municipal office, and no fee for a write-in declaration. Indiana Code 3-8-2-11 is a mail-filing and economic-statement provision rather than a fee provision. The real gate is paperwork, not money. · Indiana Code 3-8-9-6. The circuit court clerk shall reject a declaration of candidacy, petition of nomination, declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, or certificate of candidate selection that does not include the statement of economic interests. · Indiana Code 3-8-2-4(b) and 3-13-1-15(c). The write-in declaration deadline is a fixed calendar date of noon on July 3 before election day, not a count of days back from the election. Indiana Code 3-5-4-1.5 rolls a filing due on a weekend or state holiday to noon on the next day the office is open, which is why the 2026 deadline was Monday July 6. · Indiana Code 3-10-6-2 and 3-10-6-5 put the municipal primary on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May 2027 and the municipal election in November 2027. Indiana Code 3-8-2-4, 3-8-2-5 and 3-8-2-6 set the filing window at 118 to 88 days before the primary, which is January 6 to noon on February 5, 2027. · Indiana Code 3-10-2-13. County officers are elected at the general election before their terms of office expire. The statute names no years, and the twelve Title 36 chapters that create the individual county offices name none either, so which offices are up in a given county is a matter of historical continuity rather than a rule anyone can look up. · Indiana Code 3-8-2-6(a) and 3-6-5-8(f). Candidate paperwork is filed with the county election board at the county seat. The circuit court clerk is the board's secretary rather than its chair, which is why the office you walk into is the clerk's. · Indiana Code 3-7-26.4-8(c). The public version of Indiana's voter list withholds six classes of field: date of birth, gender, telephone number and email address, voting history, voter identification number, and registration date. Indiana Code 3-7-27-6(c) additionally permits a county to decline to release a county list at all. Misuse of the list is a Class B infraction under Indiana Code 3-14-6-2, rising to a Class A misdemeanor on a repeat.. Fees and signature counts change; confirm before you file.

The Tipton County Clerk of the Circuit Court.

This is the office that takes your paperwork. Indiana files candidates through the county election board at the county seat, and in almost every county that board works out of the Clerk of the Circuit Court's office. Where a county runs a separate board of voter registration, the first step of a petition of nomination goes there instead, and the card below names it.

Contact details verified 2026-08-16. Official statewide sources: Indiana Election Division · Indiana Election Division: candidate forms and guides · Indiana Voters: find your county election office · Indiana Code Title 3, the Election Code.

Common questions.

After you qualify: the field operation.

Indiana county and municipal races are decided by a small, findable set of households, and the odd-year municipal cycle is the smallest electorate most candidates will ever face. Turnout in an Indiana municipal election frequently runs in the teens as a percentage, which means a few hundred conversations can decide a council seat. The catch is that Indiana's public voter list carries no voting history, so you cannot sort by who reliably turns out the way you can in most states. That makes the geography matter more: knowing which streets to walk, and walking them twice, beats a list you cannot rank.

That is the part Motion51 was built for. You scope your district, cut turf, and send volunteers out with a phone instead of a clipboard. It works offline, so canvassing does not stop where the cell signal does, and every door is logged with a timestamp for your records. Our For Candidates page walks through what that looks like.

Counties next to Tipton.

Running in a district that crosses a county line? Each of these has its own guide.

See all Indiana counties →