Reed Sentenced To Probation For Ballot Violation

By John Gibson, WNIN

July 7, 2021

Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge David Kiely ordered Janet Reed to serve 18 months of probation.

Reed pleaded guilty in May to one count of unauthorized absentee ballot.

She mailed hundreds of absentee ballot applications with the Democratic Party pre-selected where voters were to choose whether they wanted a Democratic or Republican ballot for the primary election.

Edie Hardcastle, then-chair of the Vanderburgh County Democratic Party, said last year that Reed did not send the applications on behalf of the local party.

Hardcastle said Reed had access to voter information through her work on Thomasina Marsili's unsuccessful campaign against Congressman Larry Bucshon.

Multiple news media outlets report Reed was ordered to pay $2,700 in restitution.

She could have been sentenced up to two-and-a-half years in prison.

WNIN is the NPR/PBS affiliate in Evansville, Indiana. We serve Southwestern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois from our multimedia facility located on the Ohio River in downtown Evansville. For the past several years, the recognized quality of our local news has placed us among the best small market radio news organizations in the nation.