St. Joseph County Clerk candidates outline their visions for the role

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- County Clerks do many things, with their main focus being on elections. They train poll workers and ensure the election integrity.

Republican incumbent Amy Rolfes is St. Joseph County's current Clerk, serving in the role since 2022.

Rolfes tells me that she's running for clerk again because of the experience she's gained during her term.

"I've improved voter education." Rolfes said. "I have also improved election security with $140,000 of grant money to ensure that our election equipment is secured, we are bipartisan in everything that we do...We also had an audit done in 2024 of the presidential election, and we scored the perfect score, and it had never been done in St. Joseph County before, so I'm very proud of that. Moving forward, what my plan is to continue with increased voter education, so that voters are better informed about the whole voting process."

Democratic challenger Stephanie Ball previously served as a South Bend Community School Corporation board member. She says her goal would be community outreach.

" Out of 92 counties, we rank the last in voter turnout," Ball said. "So really one of my goals as the new county clerk would be to educate the community about the importance of elections, the election process, educating about the forms that we use because there's lots of sometimes confusion about how to complete those forms and what what they look like. So I really want to do more educational outreach and let people know that our office is there as a service to them."