Blackford Ledger's Election Hub Is Back Online

The Ledger's Election Hub is back up and running, with profiles for all 21 candidates on the November 3 ballot across Blackford County's 14 races.

The Hub covers every seat Blackford County voters will decide this fall, from Marlin Stutzman, Kelly Thompson and Phillip Beachy's contest for Indiana's 3rd Congressional District down to county-level races like Commissioner and Council. Each candidate profile includes their background, why they say they're running, their lead campaign issue, how long they've been in office (if at all), and how much money they've raised. These will continue to be updated as time goes on.

Readers can browse candidates race by race, or switch to a compare view to see how everyone running stacks up side by side on fundraising, party, and local roots.

The Hub also lets readers weigh in on each candidate with a simple approve or disapprove vote. This isn't a poll and it isn't a prediction — it's a way for readers to register their own reaction to a candidate, and those numbers will be visible next to each profile.

Over the next several months, the Ledger will be reaching out to candidates in all 14 races for one-on-one interviews. The goal is to go beyond what's already public — campaign finance filings, meeting minutes, court records — and get each candidate on the record about the specific decisions they'd make in office: how they'd vote on the issues currently in front of county government, where they stand on the tax abatements and rezoning questions the Ledger has been covering, and what they'd do differently from whoever holds the seat now.

Those interviews will be added to each candidate's profile as they're completed. Candidates who don't respond to the Ledger's outreach will be marked "Did not respond" rather than left off the page.

The Election Hub can be found on the homepage of the site or by going to https://theblackfordledger.com/elections.

Election Day is November 3.