Candidates for the open Monroe County clerk seat and the county prosecutor position met Monday night at Tri-North Middle School in Bloomington to answer questions about their platforms for the public.
The League of Women Voters, a national organization dedicated to empowering women and marginalized communities to vote, organized the event.
County clerk candidates Tree Martin Lucas, Joe Davis and Tanner Branham spoke first in a panel addressing their platforms, plans and potential hurdles.
The county clerk of court handles marriage licenses, voting and voter registration, child support and access to public records. Lucas and Branham have both worked in the Monroe County clerk’s office, the latter currently serving as chief deputy to outgoing clerk Nicole Browne.
Joe Davis, a Bloomington resident who previously ran for a seat on the county council in 2024 as a write-in candidate, joined the race as an outsider to county government and is running as an independent. All three responded to the same set of questions, some predetermined and some sourced from the audience.
All three candidates agreed on implementing voting centers in Monroe County, which would eliminate the need for precinct voting.
“Vote centers? I love them,” Lucas said. “We have to cast out so many votes because people are at the wrong precinct.”
Lucas and Branham, both Democrats, emphasized the importance of working with Republican majorities on the election board at state and local levels.
Davis encouraged the audience to remember precinct voting is the standard for elderly and disabled community members, and implementing vote centers would likely shut down some precincts in rural areas.
“Those folks, those very rural locations, they will need to be able to have other convenient means of getting registered to vote, or voting on the ballot,” Davis said. “That means an increased outreach with mail-in voting, trying to enable the most early voting, so that people can early vote when they come into Bloomington.”
All three candidates agreed it was in part the clerk’s duty to encourage higher voter turnout.
“Getting people registered to vote in our electoral process is something I'm deeply passionate about,” Branham said. “I’m currently the chair of the Monroe County Young Democrats. I've been tabling at every possible event we can to get young people engaged to vote. So I'm very passionate about that.”
The three candidates agreed on most points, including fostering an inclusive community for marginalized voters and reaching younger voters, but split on supporting a shift to counting early votes as they come in. Branham and Lucas said they would be in favor of tallying votes early to expedite the results process.
“Obviously the big pro is that we get the election results faster, which, we all agree with that, right?” Branham said. “We have to count votes faster.”
But Davis said the risk of losing public support would be too high. He said early voters might be concerned they could be linked to their ballots if they were counted as they were cast as opposed to with the larger group.
Lucas acknowledged the potential optical issues of scanning early ballots but assured the public early scanning would not violate the sanctity of their ballots. She said there are several layers of protection and randomization that prevent a scanner from being able to assign a ballot to a voter.
The prosecutor candidates took the stage next. Incumbent Erika Oliphant and challenger Benjamin Arrington, both Democrats, spent about 40 heated minutes addressing challenges of the current office and proposals for the future.
Arrington called the current office’s track record of prosecuting violent offenders into question, saying the city deserved a prosecutor who was tougher on crime.
Benjamin Arrington (left) and Erika Oliphant (right) speak on a panel as candidates for Monroe County prosecutor March 30, 2026, at Tri-North Middle School in Bloomington. Arrington, a first-time candidate, challenged incumbent Oliphant for the Democratic nomination in the May 5 primary election.
“Right now, we have an administration that fails to maintain its own docket and lets violent predators walk free on missed deadlines,” he said.
Arrington also pledged to follow in the footsteps of Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears in refusing to prosecute cases of marijuana possession or those concerning the reproductive rights of women, doctors and OB-GYNs.
Oliphant, who has served as county prosecutor since 2019 and won several awards for her work, said Arrington’s ambition to follow Marion’s lead is misplaced and taking drastic action could draw attention to Bloomington from state figures like Attorney General Todd Rokita.
“Making a public declaration does nothing but aggravate those people at the state of Indiana who make our laws, including the governor and Todd Rokita,” she said.
Arrington has never served in a prosecuting role before, but said his breadth of experience as an administrative law judge, a truck driver and a Pizza Hut manager made him a good candidate all the same.
“This is not a line attorney position. It is an executive, administrative and policymaking role,” he said. “Monroe County has an office of 18 deputy prosecutors handling a daily docket. The elected prosecutor is the CEO of that office. I have extensive, varied court experience. My job won't be monopolized at the council table.”
Oliphant said it’s still important as prosecutor to be able to work cases, even if the job doesn’t necessarily entail it.
“You may not think this is a line position, but in times of staffing shortages, I handled a major felony caseload for six months competently while also running the office,” she said.
The event ended at 8 p.m., with around 70 people staying for both panels.
Early voting for this election cycle begins April 7, and election day is May 5.
