By VICKI URBANIK

A lawsuit filed by five voters asks a Porter County judge to declare the election of State Rep. Ed Soliday void, and either seat his Democrat opponent, Sylvia Graham, or call a special election for the 4th House District seat.

The suit, filed in Porter Superior Court Judge William Alexa’s court on Wednesday, declares that Soliday actually lives in the 10th District, not the 4th District.

The lawsuit focuses largely on an action taken by the Porter County Commissioners in October of 2001, when they passed an ordinance changing and adding precincts, including those in Center Township. The suit claims that the ordinance passed was invalid, and that the commissioners do not have the authority to redraw precincts that change a state legislative district.

The Chesterton Tribune recently reported that after the commissioners passed that ordinance, County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger asked election officials for the new precinct map and legal description. However, her file does not show that that information was submitted, and the documents could not be located either in the records of the commissioners or the county auditor.

The suit was filed by five voters from Porter and Jasper counties: Edwin Gutt, Jr., James Saylor, Kevin Cornett, Bruce Evans and Cornelia Longstreth. They are represented by attorneys Mitchell Peters and Kenneth Elwood. Named as plaintiffs are Soliday and Porter County Election Board members Dale Brewer, Patrick Lyp and J.J. Stankiewicz.

Soliday has said that he verified that his residency is in the 4th House district before he filed and that his voter registration card issued by the county identifies him as living in the proper precinct and House district. He has also said the effort to remove him smacks of partisan politics and could backfire on his Democratic opponents.

The suit contends that the county commissioners who were in office in 2001 -- the late Larry Sheets, former commissioner Dave Burrus and current commissioner John Evans -- passed an ordinance adding precincts, but that the precinct maps and descriptions were never appended within the appropriate file. That deficiency in the record means that the ordinance was not properly passed or ratified, the suit contends.

Minutes from the commissioners’ meeting shows that the change in precincts was needed in part because of recent annexations. Soliday’s neighborhood had been annexed by Valparaiso the year before.

A county precinct map shows that prior to October, 2001, Soliday’s residence on Throughwoods Drive was in Center Township precinct 18. The commissioners’ ordinance is believed to have changed precinct 29 to include Soliday’s neighborhood. By state statute, precinct 18 is in the 10th House District, while precinct 29 is in the 4th District.

The lawsuit contends that the county’s new precinct map was not submitted to or ratified by the Indiana Legislature and that the commissioners “do not have the authority, actual or implied, to redraw its voting precinct as to effect the House District within which a candidate or voter reside.” The suit claims that only the State Legislature has the constitutional authority to redraw its House districts.

The suit contends that as a result, the Porter County Election Board improperly placed Soliday on the ballot and improperly certified him as the elected representative. The only valid candidate on the ballot, the suit states, was Graham (though the suit erroneously spells her last name as “Grahm.”). The lawsuit asks that either Graham be seated or that a special election be held to fill the seat.

As of this morning, Alexa had not yet set a hearing date.

Posted 2/22/2007