On Jan. 8th, 2026, Councilwoman Amy Drake filed her candidacy for Republican State Convention Delegate and sent a text message thanking the St. Joseph County clerk’s office for its assistance.
Weeks later, Drake hired an attorney and argued those same clerks had treated her unfairly.
Drake filed as a candidate for State Convention Delegate in District 5. She lives in District 1.
She then wrote to the clerk’s office: “Thank you for your graciousness and assistance today, esp with the big group!”
A member of the Clerk’s Office replied, “Always! It’s what we do.”
There was no mention of a problem. No question about the district she selected. No indication she believed anything had been handled incorrectly.
At a Feb. 25th election board hearing, Drake acknowledged her mistake.
“It was an error,” she said.
When asked if she used the online website to look up her district before filing, she admitted that she did not.
Drake’s error was not corrected before the filing deadline.
Instead, Drake and her attorney shifted the focus to the clerks.
They argued the office had treated candidates inconsistently and pointed to other filings that had been changed after the initial submission, but still within the deadline. Drake’s attorney described it as “fundamental fairness” and argued the clerk’s office, by assisting some candidates and not others, had influenced who remained on the ballot.
Drake said she was never told there was a problem with her form.
But on Jan. 8th, she was in direct communication with the clerk’s office.
She thanked them.
She did not raise a concern.
She did not ask whether her district was correct.
She did not take steps to confirm it.
The examples cited at the hearing involved missing information. Some candidates left fields blank and later supplied that information.
Drake’s form was not missing anything.
It listed the wrong district.
Clerk staff testified they contact candidates when something is incomplete. They do not check whether completed entries are accurate.
“It is not my duty to critique their filing,” one clerk testified during the election board hearing.
Jan. 8th: Drake filed her candidacy and thanked the clerk’s office.
Feb. 25th: Drake was removed from the ballot for filing in the wrong district.
Afterward: she argued the process was unfair and placed responsibility on the clerks instead of herself.
The record reflects a clear sequence. Drake filed in the wrong district, acknowledged the mistake, and did not verify her eligibility before the deadline. The clerk’s office processed the filing as submitted and followed its standard practice of addressing incomplete, not incorrect, forms. No evidence presented at the hearing showed clerks misled her or altered her filing. The dispute, as argued afterward, centers on expectations of assistance rather than documented error by election staff.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster founded Redress South Bend and reports on local government and public records in South Bend and St. Joseph County. He is 31 years old and is majoring in finance. He is a Cleveland sports fan and a longtime season ticket holder of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
