Max Engling Talks Vision for Indiana Secretary of State’s Office

INDIANAPOLIS — In a stunning rebuke of incumbent Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, state GOP delegates chose Max Engling as their nominee for the job.

“I’m focused on this role because we need to defend our elections here in the state of Indiana and make sure that we’re upholding the shared Conservative values with Hoosiers across the state,” Engling said during an interview with FOX59/CBS4 on Thursday.

The Jim Banks staffer had received support from both Sen. Banks and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in the weeks leading up to the state’s GOP convention. Both Banks and Rokita withdrew their initial endorsements of Morales over concerns that Morales had lost the trust of the voters.

“If the voters here in Indiana send me forward, the transition period is going to be very important,” Engling said. “You have to have new processes in place—new procedures to make sure that the offices run well, the office is run with integrity. I already have had several folks that are on the outside, and some that have been in the office before, say that they’re willing to give me time and assistance together to work through any challenges that we’ll see in that office.”

Engling said if he wins, he will work with the Indiana General Assembly to pass a bill closing Indiana’s primaries. If that happens, Hoosier voters would need to choose their party affiliation when registering to vote and could only vote for candidates on that party’s ballot in the primaries.

“We have to have election integrity…making sure that Republicans vote in Republican primaries, Democrats vote in Democratic primaries,” Engling said. “There’s a piece of legislation they’re already working in the process. We’re excited to continue to work on that.”

Engling also said he will work to remove any noncitizens from the voter rolls—something both the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office and Indiana Attorney General’s Office have worked on for several years.

“There’s folks that are here illegally that cannot vote in our elections—we have to make sure we preserve that so that they cannot vote, but then also folks that are here legally but not eligible to vote in our elections,” Engling said. “I’m fully in support of following up and auditing after an election. I think you need to do that to say, ‘Did somebody vote?’, and then, ‘Did they vote illegally and should they be prosecuted?’…We need to be much more proactive to make sure that folks that are not eligible to vote are not registering to vote.”

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Morales and Rokita petitioned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to verify the citizenship of more than 585,000 Indiana voters. In a December 2025 joint news release, both agencies claimed that the preliminary results of the verification process found 165 noncitizens who registered to vote and 21 who had cast ballots in recent elections.

None of the alleged noncitizens have been convicted of crimes related to voter fraud. It’s unclear what legal action against these individuals, if any, is being taken.

In September 2025, the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office claimed they uncovered a case of a non-citizen illegally voting multiple times in Vigo County. At the time, the office could not confirm either how the individual got on the voter rolls in the first place or if the individual’s alleged illegal voting compromised any local elections. The individual has not been charged with committing any crimes related to voter fraud.

According to the Heritage Foundation, six individuals in Indiana were convicted of crimes related to fraudulent use of absentee ballots or false registrations in the last decade. None of the individuals in those cases were undocumented immigrants.

Engling said he’d like to see the state update how it issues IDs to make it easier to differentiate citizens from non-citizens.

“One of the ways that you can do that is to change the color of the license, the background color of the license,” Engling said. “So, when you see the license like that come in, you know this person’s not eligible to vote.”

Engling also said he believes state lawmakers should shorten the early voting window to two weeks (albeit with extended hours in the morning and evening). Over the last couple years, several Republican lawmakers have unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation that would reduce the state’s early voting period.

“I’ve talked to a lot of [county] clerks—this would be immensely helpful,” Engling said. “We still need early voting, but somewhere around two weeks, I think, makes sense…I think it helps both from a cost-saving measure, but also practically speaking, that we wouldn’t be reducing the opportunity to vote by saying it needs to be two weeks with extended hours.”

Another top priority for Engling is ramping up efforts in the office’s Business Registration Division to crack down on corporate front operations (specifically, dubious trucking companies known as “chameleon carriers”) that he said are taking advantage of Indiana’s business filings.

“It’s a major crisis in Indiana,” Engling said. “A lot of the way that happens is these companies that are not operating by the regulations, they’ll build identical LLCs. They will have their drivers drive inside of that LLC. They’ll rack up all kinds of violations, putting these folks that shouldn’t be on the road here on the road with Hoosiers. Then, when they’ve racked up enough violations, they discard that LLC, move their drivers over to another identical one, and then continue as bad actors on the road.”

Engling is guaranteed to face libertarian Lauri Shillings and Democrat Beau Bayh this November.

“I appreciate that they selected Beau Bayh—I think he does have a legacy last name,” Engling said. “He has a lot of money—we know that. But I think he doesn’t understand what it means to be a Hoosier…we know what it’s like to feed a family of six here in Indiana, and I think that’s something that Beau doesn’t understand.”

Former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said he’s collected more than 60,000 signatures to get on the ballot as an Independent candidate in the race. Ballard has until the end of the month to turn in signatures to county clerks’ offices.

“I would welcome Ballard to the race,” Engling said. “I think both Bayh and Ballard would be fighting over the anti-conservative Republican, anti-Trump, anti-Max Engling vote, and I’m happy to let them go split up that vote. Here in Indiana, we’re a conservative state. We don’t want what’s being offered by the other side.”

When asked why Hoosier voters should ultimately choose him over the competition, Engling replied, “One, because I’m running to defend our elections in the state of Indiana. Two, I’m running on our shared conservative values. So, we need somebody in the office that understands what it means to be a Hoosier and that shares their conservative values so we can lead with a vision and make sure that we’re upholding the strength that we have built here in Indiana.”

Max Engling Talks Vision for Indiana Secretary of State’s Office was originally published on wibc.com