An image of a sunglasses-wearing Abraham Lincoln will appear near the top of Indiana election ballots this fall.

That is the emblem submitted by the Lincoln Party to appear in the section for voters choosing to cast straight-ticket ballots — even though the newly formed party’s only candidate is Greg Ballard running for secretary of state.

The Lincoln image appears alongside the Republican eagle and the Democratic rooster (neither of which are the traditional party mascots of an elephant and a donkey). Libertarians are represented by a Statue of Liberty emblem.

Nathan Gotsch, the Lincoln Party chair who is also Ballard’s campaign manager, declined to talk about how the emblem was decided upon.

“I don’t think that they really mean anything to the voters but there has to be some kind of mark,” he told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “I just knew that we needed to have something up there.”

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Gotsch said the ballot emblem is an obscure part of Indiana’s election law that he didn’t know about until some “friendly folks” contacted the Ballard campaign about it.

“We filed the request to be on the straight ticket — to be listed with the other parties, essentially — I think the day of the deadline,” he said.

The parties had until Aug. 21 to submit the emblem to the Indiana Election Division, which provided it to county election officials for ballot preparation. Counties must start sending mail ballots this week to voters who have already submitted approved applications.

Ballard, the former Republican mayor of Indianapolis, and Gotsch formally created the Lincoln Party in March. They say their aim is to create an easier path for independent-minded candidates to make the election ballot rather than having to gather nearly 40,000 voter signatures for a statewide race.

Republican Max Engling, Democrat Beau Bayh and Libertarian Lauri Shillings are the other candidates for secretary of state, an office whose duties include overseeing statewide election policies.

Despite the unique look of the Lincoln Party ballot emblem, Gotsch downplayed any positive or negative impact.

“I think most people will just kind of glance through it,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to go, ‘Oh, I’m going to go for the eagle party or the rooster party or whatever.’”

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