09092003 - News Article - No decision on judge race appeal - Election Board says November ballots have to be printed soon - ROBERT CANTRELL

No decision on judge race appeal
Election Board says November ballots have to be printed soon
NWI Times
Sep 9, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/no-decision-on-judge-race-appeal/article_ba0ad5bf-3f1b-5c15-9ad1-b58f104b70c5.html
SCHERERVILLE -- The Deborah Riga camp on Monday had not decided whether to appeal the ruling declaring Kenneth Anderson the winner of May's Democratic primary for Schererville town judge.

But the matter could be complicated by the need to print ballots for the general election prior to the deadline for appeals.

Bruce Lambka, Lake County Election Board attorney, said ballots for the Nov. 4 general election have to be printed and ready by Sept. 20. Absentee ballots must be mailed out beginning Sept. 25, Lambka said.

That falls well before the deadline for appealing Friday's decision that overturned Riga's win.

"At some point, we have to get these ballots printed according to the order of the court and move forward," he said.

Without an appeal, Anderson will become the new judge in January because the Republican party did not field a candidate for the November general election.

The outcome of the primary has been tied up in court since Anderson filed a challenge to Riga's primary win. Anderson beat Riga at the polls but lost the election by 11 votes once the absentee ballots were counted. He charged that 23 votes from Precinct 10 were fraudulent.

An election panel ruled that four votes were illegal because those voters no longer lived in town, but they did not believe corruption was rampant enough to invalidate Riga's win.

Anderson appealed that decision in Lake Superior Court before Mary Beth Bonaventura, a juvenile court judge serving as special judge in the case. He contended the primary was so tainted, a new one should be held in Precinct 10.

A volley of legal motions followed with Riga's team moving to get the case dismissed. She argued that the case should not be heard at the local level. Her team also charged that Anderson didn't file the case within the statutory deadline.

The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the case should be heard at the local level.

The case went back to Bonaventura who issued a 45-page decision Friday, citing fraudulent voting and reversing the outcome of the election.

Robert Vann, Riga's attorney, said on Monday that Riga and her legal team is reviewing the decision. They have 30 days, until Oct. 5, to file an appeal at the Indiana Court of Appeals.

"We have not made a determination regarding our next course of action," he said. "We definitely intend to decide before then."

Anderson's attorney John Craig said if Riga's team appeals, they then have 30 days to file a response and Riga's side would get 15 days to respond again.

That means a court decision could come 75 days from Sept. 5, more than two weeks after the general election.

And that's without any continuances or extensions, Craig said.

"If they appeal, that's their right," he said. "We're ready to go forward. If we have to appeal, fine. If we don't fine. We're ready to go forward no matter what happens."