https://progressiveindiana.net
SUMMARY:
In this PIN Virtual Town Hall, Brianna - The Recovered Republican - hosts Blythe Potter, Democratic candidate for Indiana Secretary of State. Potter — an Army veteran, small business owner, and mother from Johnson County — makes the case that the Secretary of State’s office should be a boring, customer-service-oriented administrative job, and that she has the organizational and marketing background to fix it. The conversation ranges across voter accessibility, website modernization, transparency, office culture, digital disinformation, and election security, with Potter consistently returning to three themes: proactive voter outreach through a comprehensive statewide ballot book, citizen-led ballot initiatives as the mechanism for expanding voting options, and restoring basic accountability to an office she says has been hollowed out by Diego Morales’s nepotism and cronyism. Viewer questions from touched on auto-mail ballots, an Indiana Office of Digital Integrity, reallocation of overpaid political hires, and the obstacles Potter has faced from party insiders during the primary.
IN DEPTH:
0:00:22 - Introductions
- Brianna Indiana opens the town hall under her “Recovered Republican” banner, framing the evening around transparency, accountability, and substance over soundbites.
- Potter introduces herself as a mom, Army veteran, and small business owner — and argues that the Secretary of State’s office should fundamentally be a boring administrative job focused on maintaining systems, securing data, and serving the public.
- She draws on 30 years in customer service and 20 years of administrative work, and flags two core problems she wants to fix: Hoosiers who show up to vote without knowing what’s on their ballot, and the broken INBiz website that she and her own business partner struggled to navigate.
- Her pitch in brief: if you want people to know about elections, you market them — and as a small business owner, that’s exactly what she does every day.
0:04:20 - Q: What concrete steps would you take in the first year to make voting easier and more accessible?
- Potter’s centerpiece proposal is a comprehensive statewide ballot book — mailed opt-in to registered voters, available online, in Braille, and in multiple languages — that goes well beyond the current website’s bare office/name/party listing.
- She would start by adding public feedback boxes to all Secretary of State websites (including INBiz) to let end users identify what’s broken, rather than imposing top-down fixes.
- Roughly 10% of Indiana’s population — over 600,000 residents — lacks internet access, so physical mail distribution is essential, not optional.
- Funding mechanisms include HAVA grants and existing budget reallocation; the goal is to make election information so ubiquitous that voters would have to “intentionally ignore” it.
0:07:58 - Q: What specific transparency measures would you implement to end no-bid contracts and restore accountability?
- Potter would open the office with an independent audit, release the results publicly in real time, and use the findings to establish a baseline for reform.
- All contracts would be publicly posted before bidding, with unions and small businesses specifically notified so they have a real shot at winning work — keeping money in local economies.
- She frames transparency as a cultural posture, not just a procedural one: politicians should own their mistakes publicly the same way she tries to as a candidate.
- The Secretary of State’s office is inherently nonpartisan in function — no hot-button policy decisions — which makes it, in her view, the ideal place to model what responsive, ethical government looks like.
0:10:09 - Q: What new supports or resources would you provide to county clerks?
- Every county has different needs; Potter would start by visiting and listening before prescribing solutions.
- HAVA grants — which she says stopped flowing to counties like Morgan and Monroe under Diego Morales — would be restored to fund voter education, poll workers, and equipment.
- She would ensure all Secretary of State staff are certified notaries to prevent the kind of filing paperwork failures the office has already experienced, and would push county clerks’ offices to maintain notaries on staff as well.
0:11:39 - Q: What would you do to make elections safer?
- Potter notes that “election security” means different things to different voters — some fear voter intimidation (including ICE presence at polls), others worry about vote-counting integrity — and that the office should speak to both concerns.
- Her primary prescription is transparency through education: live demonstrations of how voting machines work, YouTube videos, and clear explainers on the bipartisan inspector system already in place at every polling site.
- By and large, Indiana elections are safe — the problem is a lack of public understanding, which creates a noise environment that bad-faith actors exploit.
0:13:28 - Q (viewer): Diego Morales hired family members. How should the hiring process work in your office?
- No family members, period — and no cronyism either. All open positions would be publicly posted.
- She would retain long-serving career staff who do good work and aren’t responsible for Morales’s decisions; they deserve credit for doing their jobs under difficult circumstances.
- Hiring decisions would incorporate public feedback on what qualities people want to see in office staff.
0:14:52 - Q (viewer): What steps would you take to increase civic engagement for working families, seniors, and young voters in communities like Johnson County?
- The ballot book addresses all of these groups: comprehensive, accessible, optionally mailed — and would include civics basics like how to become a precinct chair, what a township trustee does, and how to run for office.
- For seniors and homebound voters, Potter supports opt-in permanent absentee ballot enrollment — once you opt in, you receive a ballot every election without re-applying — and would publicize travel board options for those who want in-person assistance.
- She flags the shift from neighborhood polling locations to consolidated vote centers as a specific barrier for voters without cars, and says county-level needs must be assessed individually.
- Johnson County lacks adequately handicap-accessible polling locations — a concrete local example of gaps the office should identify and address.
0:18:08 - Q (viewer): What are your plans for the work environment inside the Secretary of State’s office?
- Potter would begin with an internal listening tour — asking current staff about culture, morale, and unmet needs before making changes.
- She would review and update the employee handbook, which she suspects is outdated, and clear out anyone who’s incompatible or checked out.
- Requiring all office staff to be certified notaries would eliminate a specific operational vulnerability that caused problems with filing paperwork under the current administration.
- The goal is a nonpartisan, impartial, psychologically safe workplace — because politics can be uncomfortable, and staff need to be able to do their jobs without pressure.
0:20:06 - Q: Tell us more about the proposed statewide voter guidebook — what’s in it and how does it reach every Hoosier?
- Beyond candidate listings, the book would include party platforms, how to become a precinct chair or delegate, what a township trustee does, how to file as an independent candidate, and county party contact information for all parties.
- Candidates would have space for a brief (roughly 500-700 character) nonpartisan self-description, a website link, and social media handles — and any candidate who refuses to fill it out gets “candidate chose not to respond,” which Potter says speaks for itself.
- This levels the playing field: Republican candidates in her local races never answered League of Women Voters questionnaires or updated Ballotpedia, but would now have a standardized, publicly visible profile.
- Distribution would combine physical mail, digital access, and ADA-compliant formats, drawing on late-’90s-era websites that desperately need modernization.
0:23:32 - Q: How has your military service in Iraq shaped your leadership style?
- Potter served as a .249 and .50-cal gunner, lead truck driver, and night watch — not just a personal security role — which entailed real accountability for weapons, equipment, and her team.
- She is clear that she does not believe the U.S. should have been in Iraq, is opposed to the ongoing support for military action in Gaza and Palestine, and opposes war broadly.
- Her early leadership style mirrored the authoritarian “do as I say” model she experienced in a Republican household and in the military — she’s candid that it wasn’t kind.
- Over time, she’s moved toward nonviolent communication and consensus-building: she believes a leader is only as strong as the least-informed member of their team, and actively develops cross-functional knowledge in the people she manages.
0:26:23 - Q (viewer): In deep-red counties, people think Democrats are crazy before we open our mouths. What message works best for rebuilding trust?
- Potter’s advice is to lead with curiosity rather than persuasion: ask people what they’re worried about, because the underlying concerns — costs, safety, quality of life — are usually shared across party lines.
- She acknowledges that Democrats have earned some distrust through federal-level failures, and that the party genuinely needs to change how it campaigns and governs.
- When conversations turn hostile, she recommends a polite exit rather than escalation; the goal is consistency and continued presence, not winning every argument.
0:29:46 - Q (viewer): Should we automatically mail ballots to voters?
- Potter supports permanent opt-in absentee enrollment rather than requiring a new request each election cycle — she would not mandate universal mail ballots without putting it to voters first.
- Her preferred mechanism is a citizen-led ballot initiative: let Hoosiers vote on whether to adopt automatic mail ballots, as other states have, so no single party takes the blame or credit.
- She believes broader mail voting would increase turnout — the 2020 numbers support this — though she acknowledges it’s not universally popular.
0:30:59 - Q (viewer): How would you protect Hoosiers from AI-generated disinformation and digital manipulation while protecting free speech and privacy?
- Social media manipulation is largely outside the Secretary of State’s direct authority, but Potter would build fact-checking infrastructure into the office’s websites — linking to resources like Snopes and potentially creating an Indiana-specific portal where residents can flag suspected disinformation.
- She is alarmed by Diego Morales’s decision to hand voter data — including Social Security and driver’s license information — to the Department of Justice, and would work to stop the state’s practice of selling Hoosier data, currently generating $12 million or more annually.
- She would seek a corporate partner to provide data-breach protection to Hoosiers whose information was exposed through DOGE-related data sharing.
- Kory’s broader proposal for a formal Indiana Office of Digital Integrity is intriguing to Potter, but she wants a public comment process before committing to its scope and structure.
0:33:54 - Q (viewer): People supporting your opponent claim you lack bipartisan appeal. What do you say?
- Potter pushes back directly: she grew up in a Republican home in a rural red area, still lives in one, and understands viscerally what it means to distrust Democrats.
- The real trust deficit, she argues, is Democrats taking corporate money and then voting like Republicans once elected — her platform has nothing inherently partisan in it and invites public input.
- She believes her strongest untapped constituency is non-voters — the largest single “voting bloc” — who are more likely to respond to authenticity and accessibility than to a famous last name.
0:35:31 - Q (viewer): What level of customer service do Hoosiers deserve, and how will you deliver it?
- The office should function like any responsive service organization: feedback forms, timely responses, and a chain of accountability when county clerks do something wrong.
- She is frustrated that constituents have spent a year and a half calling and emailing elected officials with no response; her office would not operate that way.
- Better website infrastructure is itself a customer service intervention — most questions should be answerable without ever contacting a human.
0:37:12 - Q: What do you say to people with concerns about your Republican upbringing?
- Potter is open about her past: she grew up without internet or cell phones, and her worldview was shaped entirely by family, friends, and church — all Republican-leaning.
- Her political shift began when she returned from Iraq in 2006 and had 90 days to find her own health insurance — the moment she realized she had been living off the government as a soldier while simultaneously believing people shouldn’t.
- She describes her political evolution as ongoing: the older she gets, the more progressive she gets, and she finds her personal journey of deprogramming useful for understanding where persuadable voters currently are.
0:39:18 - Q (viewer): How would your office improve communication and transparency with everyday residents?
- All contract bids and job openings would be publicly posted; local papers would be proactively notified; and the office would hold public forums during major procurement decisions.
- When the office makes a mistake — which it will — Potter commits to owning it publicly and correcting course rather than covering it up.
- More town halls and public engagement from the Secretary of State’s office itself would be a structural shift from the current culture of silence.
0:40:36 - Q (viewer): Should there be an Indiana Office of Digital Integrity connected to the Secretary of State?
- Potter finds the concept genuinely compelling — a Snopes-style clearinghouse for Indiana political information — but wants public input before committing to its design.
- She’s clear about the limits of her expertise here: implementing something like this is outside her wheelhouse, and she’d need to convene a dedicated conversation with Kory and others who understand the technical and legal dimensions.
- Voting machines in Indiana are not connected to the internet, but the broader question of digital integrity in elections is real and deserves serious institutional attention.
0:41:17 - Q: What does “restoring honor to the office” mean in practical terms?
- It means doing the job: managing the budget responsibly, not billing taxpayers for personal cars or travel, and making ethical decisions consistently.
- Potter directly contrasts this with what she describes as the Republican pattern of using public office for personal enrichment.
- On Kory’s specific question about election machine security: the machines in most Indiana counties are air-gapped from the internet, though they communicate with each other locally; more public education on this process would reduce unfounded fears.
0:43:01 - Q (viewer): What are your views on Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and the rise of Islamophobia?
- Potter states flatly that she believes what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, and that she is anti-war — a position she holds as an Army veteran.
- She defines human rights as non-negotiable regardless of geography: safe food, water, air, shelter, education, health care, environment, and government.
- The partisan framing of human rights, she says, is ultimately about money and power — and she would love to see a world where these basics are not up for partisan debate.
0:44:04 - Q (viewer follow-up): Would you formally support creating an Indiana Office of Digital Integrity at the state and federal level?
- At the state level, yes in concept — she’d want a public comment process to define scope and function.
- At the federal level, the Secretary of State’s jurisdiction doesn’t reach that far; she encourages a separate dedicated conversation with Kory on the details.
0:46:11 - Q (viewer): If you remove Diego Morales’s overpaid family members, how would you reallocate those funds?
- All staff should earn a living wage — she’s not proposing across-the-board salary cuts.
- But the money currently going to Morales’s brother-in-law at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year should be redirected to website upgrades, ballot book production, and county clerk resources.
- The full picture of where money has been going will only be clear after the independent audit she plans to conduct on entering office.
0:47:23 - Q: What do you say to people who claim you can’t fundraise sufficiently to win in November?
- She says “yes I can” — and argues there is nothing her campaign lacks that her opponent has: better website, better platform, better social media, better responsiveness, better ground game.
- The deeper point is structural: if $3 million is the price of entry for a competitive general election, the Democratic Party will eventually run out of candidates — it needs a model that grassroots-funded campaigns can replicate.
- Potter’s campaign has been using grassroots analytics tools for some time, a fact underscored by her opponent recently adopting the same approach.
- She draws on her involvement with the Indiana Rural Summit and relationships with organizers in Virginia and Philadelphia who have successfully engaged rural communities — an organizing model she is actively replicating across all 92 Indiana counties.
0:50:38 - Q: What do you think about top Republicans calling for Diego Morales to suspend his campaign?
- Too little, too late. Potter is blunt: Republicans nominated and protected Morales despite his illegal voting, his firing from the office, and a sexual assault allegation — they are all complicit.
- She doesn’t care who the Republican nominee ends up being; every candidate in that party is, in her view, part of the same system that produced the current mess.
- She does see political opportunity in Morales’s collapse: Republican voters who are disgusted with politics as usual are potential Potter supporters, because she’s an outsider running explicitly against cronyism in both parties.
0:52:18 - Q: What are your thoughts on party leaders donating to their preferred primary candidates?
- Potter sees the tension: Democrats are voters too and have every right to support their preferred candidates.
- But she describes a pattern in this race that goes beyond legitimate preference — county party chairs who won’t tell her when their meetings are, chairs who told her not to bother visiting because they “only have six delegates,” and media interviews that got killed.
- Her ask is simple: the Democratic Party should follow its own bylaws and treat all candidates fairly, regardless of insider preference.
0:54:00 - Q (viewer): Could Indiana adopt open or jungle primaries at the county level or below, given how many Democrats have to pull Republican ballots just to have a say?
- Potter agrees this is a real problem — she’s seen it firsthand in Johnson County, where entire towns have historically had zero Democrats on the ballot.
- Her answer is citizen-led ballot initiatives: work with the legislature to put the question directly to Hoosier voters rather than imposing it top-down.
- She supports jungle primaries in principle and notes that ballot books in states that use them include detailed, sourced breakdowns of every referendum — pros and cons with citations — so voters can make genuinely informed decisions.
- She is enthusiastic about open primaries but wants to preserve the ability to participate in one’s party of choice without being required to register or pay dues — a tension she acknowledges hasn’t been fully resolved.
0:58:12 - Final question: Is there anything you want voters to know that we haven’t covered?
- Be objective: look at both candidates, and don’t believe the claim that you need a name or money to win — a name can be built, and her campaign is proving it.
- The Secretary of State is a four-year office; voters should be thinking about sustainability, not just the moment.
- Her platform: party-building, restoring integrity to Indiana elections, and making voting easier.
- She is an open book — cell phone, email, and DMs all publicly available at blythepotter.com — and she asks voters to come to her directly before sharing rumors, because misinformation about her campaign is circulating daily.
Thanks to Blythe for taking the time to meet voters where they are. For more information and to get involved, visit her campaign website at https://blythepotter.com.
