Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Mario Massillamany on Saturday dismissed Democratic Chair Josh Lowry’s call for Election Administrator Beth Sheller’s resignation as a “clown show,” and countered with an accusation of his own: that Lowry once submitted incorrect paperwork that cost his own party 18 convention delegates.
The exchange is the latest in a fast-moving war of words that began Thursday night, when President Trump delivered a prime-time address repeating his claims that the 2020 election was “rigged, fraudulent, and not secure.” Lowry seized on the speech Friday, arguing that because Republicans held every office overseeing Hamilton County’s 2020 election, Trump’s claims — if true — would mean “Republicans cannot be trusted to run elections in Indiana.” He called on voters to reject every Republican on the November ballot and demanded that Sheller, the Republican candidate for county clerk, resign immediately.
Sheller refused, saying she has administered 11 elections and that a bipartisan county election board tested the machines and certified the 2020 results.
Massillamany echoed that defense in blunter terms.
“Josh Lowry wants Hamilton County voters to fire Beth Sheller, the woman who has personally run eleven elections in this county … with zero credible allegations of wrongdoing — because a president said something in a speech,” he wrote. “That’s not an argument. That’s a Mad Libs page: insert ‘Trump said a thing,’ conclude ‘therefore my opponent should resign.'”
The Republican chairman noted that the county’s bipartisan election board — which includes a Democratic appointee — certified the 2020 results as accurate. “Josh’s own party signed off on it,” he wrote. “If he has a problem with that outcome, he can take it up with his own appointee.”
Massillamany then went on offense, claiming Lowry “personally submitted incorrect delegate numbers and cost Hamilton County Democrats 18 delegates,” and that the error was Lowry’s alone because the election office processes, but does not audit, party chairs’ submissions.
“Before he questions whether Beth Sheller can be trusted to hold elected office, he might want to explain how he can be trusted to count to eighteen,” Massillamany wrote.
Lowry did submit an incorrect delegate allocation in December 2025, sending county election officials a township breakdown totaling 144 delegates even though the Indiana Democratic Party had allotted Hamilton County 162. Lowry acknowledged that he mistakenly copied an earlier draft. The error initially left 18 positions off the May primary ballot, but Lowry said the state party would fill those positions through its rules process and that Hamilton County would retain its full 162-member delegation.
Massillamany characterized Trump’s remarks as being “about a different state entirely.” The president’s 25-minute address did not single out Indiana; it alleged nationwide vulnerabilities, including a claim that China acquired data on 220 million American voters. Trump offered no new evidence of fraudulent votes, and the dozens of lawsuits challenging the 2020 results were rejected by the courts. Election officials of both parties have repeatedly affirmed the security of the 2020 election.
Notably, neither county chairman has disputed the security of Hamilton County’s own elections. Lowry’s release framed its argument as conditional — “if President Trump is correct” — while Sheller and Massillamany both pointed to the bipartisan certification of the 2020 count as evidence the system worked.
The dispute unfolds against the backdrop of this fall’s clerk’s race, in which Sheller is the Republican nominee. Voters will decide the contest in November.