Voter fraud evidence builds
Decision on Schererville judge race set for today
NWI Times
Jun 27, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/voter-fraud-evidence-builds/article_ce2884d0-2ba6-53ca-814e-2da1e60084be.html
SCHERERVILLE -- Claims of voter fraud and leads on the alleged culprit continue to pile up as officials debate today whether to throw out potentially tainted votes from the tight Democratic primary election for town judge.
Kenneth Anderson is challenging incumbent Town Judge Deborah Riga's 11-vote win in May's primary election. While Anderson won at the polls, Riga eked out a slim victory by a flood of absentee votes in her favor.
Anderson contends many of those votes are fraudulent and should be thrown out, crowning him the Democratic primary winner in a contest with no current Republican opposition. The election panel is set to meet today to hear Riga's rebuttal and make a final decision. Today is the state deadline to change election results.
In all, Anderson wants at least 30 votes thrown out, with the majority of those coming from residents of East European descent on the east side of Schererville.
Anderson said he has evidence that four voters from that area don't live in the district. Three of those evidently fraudulent ballots may be linked to a local man of Serbian descent with political ambitions, but tough luck at the polls.
Anderson said the person who filled out applications for those ballots also filled out applications for 15 other ballots, calling their authenticity into question as well. He has told the election panel most of those signatures are forged.
On Wednesday, Anderson showed an election board evidence that three absentee voters with the same last name have actually lived in Norridge, Ill., for two years. A person who answered the phone at that address confirmed that to The Times, but declined further comment.
And Thursday, Anderson said he uncovered another out-of-town voter, who he says claimed to live in east Schererville, but has actually lived in Crown Point for six years. A person at the Crown Point address confirmed the alleged voter lived there, but a message that was left was not returned.
In the Illinois voters' case, applications for the ballots requested that they be directed to a Crown Point address where Gus and Roberta Flores live.
The Floreses have strong roots in the area's Serbian population. Roberta is Serbian. The two also have political connections.
Gus Flores is an ex-East Chicago police chief and a top administrator in a company owned by Lake County Auditor Stephen Stiglich, a Democrat. Roberta is his personal secretary.
However, Gus Flores said he and his wife have nothing to do with the absentee ballot fiasco, instead alluding to possible involvement by his brother in-law, Bob "Bosko" Grkinich, a political novice in the area's Serbian community.
A vast majority of the contested signatures are for names of East European origin, as are the four individuals listed as requesting ballots while not living in the district.
"I don't know anything about those ballots. I never saw them. My wife never saw them," Gus Flores said.
"I've heard Bosko may have something to do with it. Does he? I don't know. But you can be sure I'm going to find out."
Grkinich and Riga did not return messages left at their residences.
Grkinich, a registered nurse, goes to the Floreses' Crown Point home regularly to care for his mother, who also lives in the home, Gus Flores said.
Grkinich is a Democratic precinct committeeman in Schererville. He also ran in but lost the 2000 Lake County coroner's race against David Pastrick, the son of East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick.
Most recently, he lost an election for St. John Township assessor in the fall of 2002.
If Anderson can prove Schererville's 10th Precinct on the east side was festering with tampered absentee ballots, the election panel could throw out all 23 mail-in ballots from the precinct. Twenty-two of those were in favor of Riga.
"This is an assault on democracy, and it is one of the great crimes that this country faces," Anderson said. "Every hour we are getting additional information from the public on apparent misuse of absentee ballots."
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