A Hamilton County election official has flagged a page of 10 voter signatures submitted by a volunteer for Greg Ballard’s independent campaign for secretary of state as potentially fraudulent, prompting the county Republican Party chairman to call for an investigation and prosecution.

Ballard, the former Republican mayor of Indianapolis, is seeking to qualify for the November ballot under the “Lincoln Party” label. To do so, he needs nearly 37,000 verified signatures from registered Indiana voters. His campaign has submitted about 35,000 so far, ahead of a June 30 deadline.

Hamilton County Election Administrator Beth Sheller said her staff discovered the suspect page sometime in late May or early June. “Nine out of 10 of these addresses were not real addresses,” she told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. The one legitimate address carried a name not registered to vote there — a name that instead matched the volunteer who submitted the signatures.

“And, you know … all the writing’s kind of the same,” Sheller said. “That’s what led us to believe that they were possibly fraudulent, and then we let the State Police decide.”

State Police picked up the page shortly after its discovery, according to the Capital Chronicle. “I can confirm that we received allegations of a crime and we are currently investigating,” spokesman Sgt. John Perrine said, noting the agency presents its findings to prosecutors rather than filing charges itself. Police did not say whether other counties had reported signatures from the same volunteer.

In a Thursday news release, Hamilton County GOP Chair Mario Massillamany called on the Indiana State Police and the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office to investigate and prosecute the volunteer. “Greg Ballard is running for the office responsible for protecting Indiana’s elections, yet a volunteer on his campaign has been caught submitting fraudulent petition signatures,” he said. “If you cannot run an honest petition drive, you have no business running the office that safeguards our elections.” Massillamany also urged election officials in all 92 counties to conduct a “heightened review” of Ballard’s petition pages.

Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Kocher told the Capital Chronicle his office “will review any information provided and work with the appropriate investigative agencies to determine if criminal charges are appropriate,” but said it would be inappropriate to comment further on a specific investigation.

The Ballard campaign said the system is “working exactly the way it’s supposed to,” noting that signatures are verified by counties and that each gatherer must attest to the validity of every sheet. “As soon as we learned of this issue, we ended this rogue individual’s association with the campaign,” the campaign said. It emphasized the 10 signatures represent about 0.02% of the more than 35,000 submitted.

Sheller cautioned that the campaign didn’t necessarily do anything wrong. “They’re trusting their people to go out and get them,” she said. Still, she added: “An example, at least, should be set. Otherwise, it’s going to keep happening.”

If Ballard qualifies, he’ll face Democrat Beau Bayh, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and a yet-to-be-named Republican, with the GOP nominee set to be chosen Saturday at the state party convention.