AUBURN – Gov. John Baldacci’s office wants controversial Androscoggin County Commissioner Helen Poulin to show proof of where she lives or face the consequences.

In a letter sent Monday to Poulin and her attorney, Baldacci’s deputy legal counsel insisted that Poulin must either supply proof of her residency or the state will assume she has moved out of the area that elected her.

So far, Poulin has dug in, insisting that she can serve the Lewiston voters who elected her, even though she has moved out of her district and resides instead in Auburn.

“If it wasn’t OK to do, I wouldn’t be here,” Poulin said at the Sept. 3 meeting of the County Commission.

However, if the state determines that Poulin has moved, the governor may declare Poulin’s seat to be vacant. In effect, she would be ejected from the three-member commission.

Records filed last month with the county Register of Deeds showed Poulin and her husband, county Treasurer Robert Poulin, sold their home at 170 Ferry Road in Lewiston and bought a house at 100 Vickery Road in Auburn.

Last week, Karla Black, the governor’s deputy legal counsel, wrote to Poulin, requesting that she submit proof of her address. Poulin did not comply.

Instead, she hired Androscoggin County Commission attorney Bryan Dench of Auburn to serve as her personal attorney. Dench wrote Black and questioned the governor’s reach.

Both sides have repeatedly cited Maine law.

“Now, they seem to be trying to find or invent some statute that will agree with them,” Dench said after skimming through the new letter.

For now, Dench plans to examine the letter, its assertions and consult with Poulin. He said he was unsure whether he would comply with the renewed request for proof of residency.

“I don’t agree with this kind of premise that if you don’t respond to me, you’re agreeing with me,” Dench said. “That seems extremely unfair.”

State officials have already asserted that county commissioners – like members of the Maine Legislature – need to live in the area they serve.

“Commissioners do have to be a resident of their district,” said Melissa Packard, the Secretary of State’s director of elections.

It seems backed up by state law.

“Members of each board of commissioners must be residents of the commissioner district which they represent and shall be elected by the voters of that district,” reads Title 30-A, section 61 of Maine Revised Statutes.

Black cited the passage in Monday’s letter.

Copies of her letter were also sent to Attorney General Steven Rowe, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap and Elmer Berry, the chairman of the Androscoggin County Commission.