Panel upholds judge election
Officials find voter fraud, but say nothing can be done
NWI Times
Jun 28, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/panel-upholds-judge-election/article_a75d7114-861c-5e92-8381-218c17baae7f.html
CROWN POINT -- Despite saying voter fraud clearly took place in up to nine instances, a split election panel Friday upheld the 11-vote win of incumbent Schererville Town Judge Deborah Riga in May's Democratic primary.
Opponent Kenneth Anderson, a Schererville attorney, fought to convince the three-member panel that a local precinct committeeman hijacked the election by signing up out-of-district voters and tainting the mail-in ballots of east side Serbian voters.
He presented the panel with evidence that four voters resided outside the district, with three of them living in Illinois. He said the person who filled out applications for those voters also filled out applications for up to 18 other voters in the heavily Serbian 10th Precinct. Many of those signatures were blatantly forged, he said.
The panel agreed with him. In fact, some of Riga's witnesses admitted that Bob "Bosko" Grkinich, who is accused of signing up the 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.
Anderson was hoping the panel would throw out the entire 10th Precinct. Twenty-three of the 24 mail-in voters from that area favored Riga. If they were trashed, Anderson would have won.
But the panel voted 2-1 that the evidence of corruption was not strong enough to justify ignoring them all.
Furthermore, the panel decided it didn't have the power to just toss out single votes, even if they were clearly illegal. On numerous occasions the members wondered aloud about their legal authority, in some cases asking the attorneys for advice.
Anderson can appeal the decision 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.
Anderson also contested seven signatures on ballots in other areas of Schererville. Riga's attorney lined up witnesses who dismissed those accusations.
But Riga's witnesses for the 10th Precinct were few. Riga also didn't contest the illegal votes, one of which evidently lived at a Crown Point address. The other three live in Norridge, Ill.
"There is never going to be a perfect election," said Robert Vann, Riga's attorney. "No candidate is entitled to a perfect election. If every election was looked at in this manner we would never elect anybody."
Vann said throwing out the entire precinct would leave the legal voters burned. Plus, he said there was no proof the other applications apparently filled out by Grkinich were tainted. Grkinich could not be reached for comment two days in a row.
The ballots applied for in the name of the Illinois residents and alleged to be filled out by Grkinich were directed to the Crown Point home of Grkinich's sister, Roberta Flores. Her husband, Gus Flores, said they had nothing to do with the ballot fiasco, but instead pointed the finger at Grkinich, who, as a nurse, visits the house regularly to care for their mother.
"You can bet I'm going to get to the bottom of this," he said during an interview Thursday.
Anderson also presented evidence Friday that a woman claiming to live on the east side of Schererville actually lives out of district in Crown Point. The application for that ballot, like many of the others, was allegedly filled out by Grkinich.
Yet, east side resident Petar Dragjevic told election judges Friday he and his family signed their own ballots, even though Grkinich filled out the applications and Anderson said they where forged.
He also said Grkinich was part of a huddle between Riga and her witnesses before the hearing.
"He was here," he said in broken English. "I see him this morning."
Riga left the hearing before speaking with the press. Vann denied he knew Grkinich.
As required by law, the election panel consisted of one Democrat, one Republican and a election department mechanic. The two political party members agreed that as many as five of the ballot signatures were different than the application signatures. They also agreed the four votes from out of town where illegal.
But it wasn't enough.
"I don't like some of the things I've seen," Republican member Joseph Allegretti said. "But I'm just not ready to go that far."
However, the election department mechanic believes Anderson's version of the story.
"I've just got this gut feeling whoever initiated this campaign tactic got a little too aggressive," said Steve Matalin. "They got so aggressive they brought in these out-of-towners. That makes your eyebrows raise. What else did they do?"
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