SHEFFIELD TWP. — The Lorain County Board of Elections voted Thursday to forward its investigation into whether Lorain County Community Action Agency Director Robert Gilchrist has been voting in the wrong place for the past four elections to county prosecutors and the Ohio secretary of state’s Office.

Jennifer Brunner, Gilchrist’s attorney, said she was surprised to learn anything had been done with the investigation. She said the elections board has never discussed the results of its probe with her and neither she nor Gilchrist knew the issue would be on the board’s agenda Thursday.

“We believe the matter should be dropped,” Brunner said.

Gilchrist’s voting record in the November 2009, May 2010, November 2010 and May 2011 elections has been called into question by Lorain resident Denise Caruloff.

She points to the fact that Gilchrist bought a house on Fields Way in the city’s 8th Ward in August or September 2009 but despite moving there — he took possession in December 2009 — he continued to vote in the city’s 2nd Ward for four more elections.

Gilchrist, who declined to comment Thursday, has previously said he voted where his driver’s license said he lived. He has also said he never did anything intentionally wrong and called the complaint ridiculous.

But Gilchrist could potentially face felony criminal charges, depending on the results of the review being conducted by prosecutors and state elections officials.

Brunner, who served as secretary of state for four years, said it’s exceedingly rare for investigations into where someone voted to be sent to prosecutors.

She said it appears that Gilchrist has been singled out for punishment.

Some Gilchrist supporters have suggested that the complaint against Gilchrist, who is black, is racially motivated, an accusation Caruloff has said isn’t true. She points to another complaint she filed challenging the residency of Lorain school board member Paul Biber, who is white, as proof she isn’t targeting anyone because of their race. The elections board dismissed her complaint against Biber.

Brunner also said she couldn’t comment on the results of the elections board investigation because she hasn’t seen the evidence gathered.

According to the evidence gathered by elections board Director Paul Adams and Deputy Director Jim Kramer, Gilchrist first registered to vote in Lorain County in September 2008.

Leases from Jon Veard’s United Property Management Co. show that Gilchrist rented a Broadway apartment from May 31, 2008, to March 9, 2009. Between March 9, 2009, and Aug. 31, 2009, he moved to a larger apartment in the same building.

The leases show that Gilchrist then moved to an Oak Point Road facility also operated by Veard’s company in August 2009 and lived there until December 2009, when he took possession of his new home on Fields Way.

Veard said Thursday that a February eviction notice against Gilchrist for failing to pay rent that was included in the elections board’s file was issued in error because of a computer problem. He said Gilchrist was a model tenant.

The elections board also uncovered evidence that Gilchrist had signed petitions for six Democratic candidates — including his then-boss, Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko — to get them placed on the May primary ballot. On the petitions he listed his voting address as the Fields Way home, although when he signed the petitions he was still registered to vote at the Broadway apartment.

The investigation also found instances of Gilchrist, who until last month was Lorain’s service director, contributing money to Krasienko’s campaigns in 2010 and 2011 and listing the Fields Way address as his residence for voting purposes.

Gilchrist changed his voter registration to the Fields Way home on Aug. 1, the same day the elections board was scheduled to conduct a hearing into where he should vote in the upcoming election. That hearing was canceled after Gilchrist changed his voter registration.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.