LEWISTON – A Lewiston man lodged a formal complaint with the Maine Attorney General’s office Friday, describing Androscoggin County Commissioner Helen Poulin’s refusal to resign a “miscarriage of justice.”

Poulin left the city without representation last month when she moved from Lewiston to Auburn, said Jim Horn, who ran against her in the 2006 county primary. Auburn and Lewiston are in different county districts.

“She should have resigned,” said Horn, who mailed his letter after examining state laws and talking with the Maine Attorney General’s Office. “It’s not a matter of sour grapes. I’m only asking that somebody look into it.”

The attorney general’s office has already spent more than a week consulting with the Maine Bureau of Elections on the matter, said Don Cookson, a spokesman for the secretary of state.

A finding could come by the middle of next week, Cookson said. That’s uncertain, though.

The Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees the elections bureau, was busy Friday finalizing ballots for the November election among other matters, he said.

Another complication may be enforcement. If state officials decide to enforce the Maine statute that requires a commissioner to reside in the district they represent, it’s unclear whether any action would come from the Secretary of State, the Attorney General or the governor, Cookson said.

“It’s not clear what the procedure is,” he said.

So far, Poulin said she is determined to serve Lewiston constituents from across the river. On Wednesday, she described how she reviewed state law and said she wouldn’t stay in office “if it wasn’t OK.”

Horn wasn’t alone Friday in his protests.

Lewiston resident Thomas Fredericks spent part of the day making plans to tour the county offices and learn about the duties of the three-member board. He also made plans to meet with Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett to talk about the Poulin issue.

“It’s taxation without representation,” Fredericks said. “Lewiston pays the biggest share of the county budget but we don’t have a commissioner now.”

Of the current $7.6 million budget, $2.3 million came from Lewiston property taxpayers, County Clerk Pat Fournier said Friday.

Fredericks wants the City Council to take action on the matter, he said. He’d also support a petition calling for Poulin’s removal.

She can’t live somewhere else, even across the river, and represent Lewiston, he said.

“She might as well be governor and move to North Carolina or Iowa,” Fredericks said.