Riga's victory upheld
Absentee ballots count in Schererville judge race
NWI Times
June 27, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/riga-s-victory-upheld/article_ef5255c8-dea9-5430-8490-d6283de0b2e4.html
CROWN POINT --- Despite saying voter fraud clearly took place in up to 9 instances, a split election panel Thursday upheld the 11-vote win of incumbent Schererville Town Judge Deborah Riga in May's Democratic primary.
Opponent Kenneth Anderson, a Schererville attorney, presented the panel with evidence that four voters lived outside the district, with three of them living in Illinois. He contended that the person who filled out applications for those voters also filled out applications for up to 18 other voters in a heavily Serbian precinct on the east side of town. He also said some of those signatures were blatantly forged.
The panel agreed with him. In fact, witnesses brought in on behalf of Riga admitted the local Serbian political novice who signed up illegal voters also approached them with the applications, and that he was in discussions with Riga, her attorney and nearly a dozen witnesses just before the hearing.
But the panel voted 2-1 that the evidence of corruption was not pervasive enough to justify throwing out all 24 absentee ballots from that precinct. Anderson can appeal to a trial judge but has not yet decided his next move, if there is one.
"Without the illegal acts of one individual I would have won the election," Anderson said.
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