Stephanie Scott’s felony case is gone. The real scandal was never her. It was the corrupt system that prosecuted the clerk preserving records while protecting the officials exposed by the record.
THE HILLSDALE CONSERVATIVES
Truth • Liberty • Local Stewardship
Hillsdale County, Michigan • April 30, 2026 • 2¢
HILLSDALE, Mich. – The case collapsed.
On April 30, 2026, Hillsdale Circuit Judge Sara S. Lisznyai signed an Order Granting Motion to Quash Bindover in People v. Stephanie Scott and People v. Stefanie Lynn Junttila, File Nos. 25-49-6230-FH and 25-49-6229-FH.
Within hours, Kallman Legal Group issued a public release announcing that it had “secured dismissal of all felony charges” in Attorney General Dana Nessel’s case against Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott.
The release stated that the court found no confidentiality requirement in the statute the Attorney General relied upon. Without that element, the felony charges could not stand. The remaining misdemeanor count was remanded back to district court.
Source:
Kallman Legal Group Press Release, April 30, 2026, 5:00 p.m.
Brief requesting dismissal:
https://tinyurl.com/mzcb62xv
Order:
https://tinyurl.com/2snyr9sz
David Kallman called the ruling a “complete vindication” and said the court recognized what Scott’s defense argued from the beginning: there was never a criminal statute applicable to her proper and legal actions.
That sentence should haunt every Hillsdale official who hid behind this prosecution.
Because if Stephanie Scott did not commit the felony crimes they accused her of, then what exactly were the Sheriff, Prosecutor, County Commissioners, Attorney General, and local media protecting?
The remaining misdemeanor should go back to its proper jurisdiction, where it should have been dismissed the first time.
This was never just a failed prosecution.
It was a political operation.
It punished the clerk who questioned election irregularities while shielding the officials whose own conduct raised the real election-law concerns.
That is not justice.
That is corruption, perpetuated by local and state officials to cover their own crimes.
Congratulations to the Stephanies
Before going further, some celebration is in order!
Congratulations to Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Lambert Junttila.
They stood.
They stood while powerful people lied about them.
They stood while political actors tried to turn lawful resistance into criminal conduct.
They stood while local officials looked away.
They stood while media voices repeated the approved narrative.
They stood while the system needed scapegoats to cover its own failures.
They did not bend. They did not confess to a lie. They did not accept the role assigned to them by a corrupt political machine desperate to make the whistleblowers look like criminals.
And now the felony case has collapsed.
That matters.
Because this was never only about Adams Township.
It was about whether a township clerk could uphold her duties when state and county officials demanded obedience instead of law.
It was about whether attorneys could defend citizens against government overreach without becoming targets themselves.
It was about whether election records belong to the people, or to the political class that wants them hidden, deleted, controlled, or rewritten after the fact.
Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Lambert Junttila were used as examples.
Now their vindication must become an example too.
The Case Designed to Punish the Innocent
The public was told Stephanie Scott was the problem.
That story fell apart long before this order.
The so-called “missing tabulator” was never missing. The district court had already dismissed the felony count involving the tabulator after the machine was found secured in a locked township office, under the clerk’s lawful custody.
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2025/12/04/the-tabulator-that-was-never-missing/
Then came the sworn testimony.
That testimony did not expose Stephanie Scott.
It exposed the system around her.
The record raised serious questions about election data, EPB flash drives, record preservation, administrative directives, seizure of township materials, and deletion of election-related records.
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2025/09/18/__trashed-2/
That is why this prosecution was always backward.
The State went after the clerk trying to preserve and question the records.
The system protected the officials whose conduct made those questions necessary.
The Attorney General’s Theory Fell Apart
At the April 13 hearing, Scott’s counsel argued that the State’s felony theory made no legal sense.
A township clerk lawfully possessing election records does not become a felon by consulting legal counsel or allowing review by experts.
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/04/14/the-real-scandal-in-hillsdale-was-never-stephanie-scott/
That should have been obvious from the beginning.
Michigan law recognizes duties and powers of township and city clerks regarding illegal or fraudulent registration questions.
Source:
https://legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-168-520
But the Attorney General’s office needed a criminal theory.
So they built one.
Then the circuit court tore it down.
Lambert also argued that the State was relying on rules and administrative theories that did not exist in the statute at the time. Judge Lisznyai reportedly noted that applying later rules retroactively would make them ex post facto.
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/04/14/the-real-scandal-in-hillsdale-was-never-stephanie-scott/
That is not a small problem.
That is the government trying to criminalize conduct first, then find the legal theory later.
When ordinary citizens do that, they call it fraud.
When government does it, they call it prosecution.
What the Witch Hunt Exposed
For nearly five years, officials and media voices demanded the public focus on Stephanie Scott.
But the record kept pointing somewhere else.
It pointed to election records.
It pointed to deleted data.
It pointed to EPB flash drives.
It pointed to seizure of township materials.
It pointed to county and state officials treating administrative convenience as if it outweighed statutory law.
Federal law requires election officers to retain and preserve covered federal election records and papers for twenty-two months, and provides penalties for willful failure to comply.
Michigan election law also requires preservation of election returns, records, and applications for prescribed periods.
Source:
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-168-811
So the question is simple.
If Stephanie Scott could be dragged through a felony prosecution for trying to preserve and review election materials, why has no one investigated the officials whose own testimony raised far more serious questions about the handling, deletion, and seizure of those materials?
That is the double standard.
That is the scandal.
And that is why Hillsdale County no longer has an election-confidence problem.
It has an election-corruption problem.
HB 5717 and HB 5845: First Break the System, Then Rewrite the Rules
And now, as if Hillsdale County needed the corruption gift-wrapped, Representative Jennifer Wortz is sponsoring election bills that land directly in the middle of the scandal this prosecution exposed.
First came House Bill 5717.
HB 5717 was introduced by Reps. Jennifer Wortz and Jay DeBoyer on March 12, 2026. The bill would amend MCL 168.373 to allow a township board to contract with an accredited election official from outside the township when the township clerk or deputy township clerk is unavailable to perform election duties.
Source:
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2026-HB-5717
Bill text:
https://legiscan.com/MI/text/HB5717/id/3393020
On paper, HB 5717 is being sold as a practical fix for township clerk vacancies.
WILX reported that the bill would allow township boards to hire a qualified, accredited election official from outside the township when the clerk’s seat is vacant or no trained deputy is available.
But in Hillsdale County, that explanation insults the intelligence of anyone who has been paying attention.
Because the real question is not whether clerks are quitting.
The real question is why.
WILX reported that supporters of HB 5717 say rural clerks are under pressure from heavy workloads, low pay, and controversies over solar farms, data centers, and election scrutiny. Hillsdale County Clerk Abraham Dane was quoted discussing those pressures.
That is a convenient explanation.
It leaves out the part where township clerks are being placed in impossible positions by a county and state election system that demands compliance, punishes scrutiny, and leaves local clerks exposed when the law and the directives do not line up.
Stephanie Scott did not create that problem.
Her case exposed it.
Now Lansing is moving a bill that makes it easier to replace or bypass unavailable township clerks with outside accredited officials.
That may sound administrative.
In context, it is control for a system that does not want independent clerks standing in the way.
Then comes House Bill 5845.
HB 5845 was introduced on April 22, 2026, by Rep. Jennifer Wortz and referred to the House Election Integrity Committee. The bill’s title is: “Elections: other; retention of electronic poll book flash drives; require. Amends sec. 811 of 1954 PA 116.”
Source:
https://legiscan.com/MI/bill/HB5845/2025
Bill text:
https://legiscan.com/MI/text/HB5845/2025
The bill text would amend MCL 168.811 to add this language:
“All electronic poll book flash drives used at any primary or election must be carefully preserved and may be destroyed after the expiration of 22 months following the primary or election at which the electronic poll book flash drives were used.”
Read that again.
After years of being told that concerns over EPB flash drives, deletion, preservation, and clerk duties were conspiracy theories, Lansing is now being asked to specifically require preservation of electronic poll book flash drives.
That is not reform.
That is an admission.
One bill creates a path to bring in outside election officials when local clerks are unavailable due to the corrupted system attacking them.
The other finally acknowledges that EPB flash drives must be preserved, something the current law already does.
In Hillsdale County, that does not look like honest reform.
It looks like cleanup.
First, the system pressures township clerks.
Then it prosecutes the clerk who refuses to bend.
Then the felony case collapses.
Then Lansing moves bills that would make it easier to bring in outside election personnel while finally clarifying preservation of the very EPB flash drives citizens were told not to worry about.
That is not how honest government restores trust.
That is how a corrupt system patches holes after getting caught.
Records were deleted when they should have been preserved, future legislation does not erase the past.
Township clerks were placed in legal jeopardy for trying to uphold record-preservation duties, lawmakers do not get to quietly rewrite the law and pretend the scandal never happened.
And these bills are being advanced with political support from the same election network whose conduct is now in question, every citizen in Hillsdale County should hear alarm bells.
Because this is the pattern.
Deny the problem.
Attack the people who expose it.
Rewrite the rules.
Declare the system repaired.
No.
HB 5717 does not answer why clerks are quitting, it exposes why they are.
HB 5845 does not answer why EPB flash drives had to become a legislative issue after Hillsdale County’s sworn testimony exposed the problem, it ofascates away from the fact the law already says it.
And neither bill answers the question Hillsdale County officials keep avoiding:
If Stephanie Scott was wrong to preserve and question election records, why is Lansing now trying to clarify how those records must be preserved?
That is the admission.
That is the scandal.
And that is why this case was never really about Stephanie Scott.
Where Was the Sheriff?
A sheriff is not elected to decorate parade cars.
A sheriff is elected to enforce the law.
Yet when the Adams Township controversy unfolded, the Hillsdale County Sheriff did not publicly defend the township clerk’s record-preservation concerns. He did not publicly investigate the sworn admissions that followed. He did not publicly treat this as a serious election-record matter.
That silence now looks less like caution and more like complicity.
Because another county made the issue painfully clear.
At a recent St. Joseph County Republican Party meeting, after Stephanie Scott presented on Hillsdale County election-security issues, the St. Joseph County Sheriff was asked a direct hypothetical about whether a clerk in that position should be protected.
His answer was simple:
“Statutes, we should be investigating that.”
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/04/29/st-joseph-county-when-a-real-sheriff-and-clerk-answer-questions/
Exactly.
Statutes should be investigated.
So why were they not investigated in Hillsdale?
Where Was the Prosecutor?
The Hillsdale County Prosecutor also has a question to answer.
The court record contains sworn testimony involving election-record deletion, EPB data, and seizure and destruction of township election materials, why has that not resulted in visible local review?
Not excuses.
Not silence.
Not “that is being handled by Lansing.”
A real review.
The kind ordinary citizens would face if they were accused of taking records they had no authority to take or destroying records they had a legal duty to preserve.
The public has watched this prosecution expose conduct far more serious than the conduct charged against Stephanie Scott.
And still, the local accountability chain remains silent.
That is not prosecutorial restraint.
That is selective enforcement.
And selective enforcement is one of the clearest signs of institutional corruption.
Where Were the Commissioners?
The County Commissioners cannot hide behind “that is a court case” anymore.
They were not asked to convict anyone.
They were not asked to act as prosecutors.
They were asked to deliberate in public about election governance, record preservation, and the county’s duty after sworn testimony placed serious facts into the public record.
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/01/15/agenda-control-vs-public-duty-the-hillsdale-county-election-dispute/
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/01/29/notice-given-record-made-why-hillsdale-county-commissioners-are-now-accountable/
Instead, they avoided the issue.
Then, when citizens pressed harder, the rules changed.
Residents who once had a clearer route to request extended agenda time watched the language shift from “shall” to “may.”
The public’s access became discretionary.
And in the perfect Hillsdale County twist, a response explaining those new limits came not from the Board Chair whose discretion was supposedly at issue, but from the County Clerk’s office, the very office sitting at the center of the controversy residents were trying to raise.
You have to admire the efficiency.
The public raises concerns about the Clerk.
The Sheriff does not publicly investigate.
The Prosecutor does not publicly prosecute.
The Commissioners do not publicly deliberate.
Then the rules change so the public has a harder time forcing the question into the open.
That is not accountability.
That is a barricade.
And barricades are not built by innocent institutions.
They are built by people with something to protect.
The Media Cover Machine
Local media did not save Hillsdale from this scandal.
It helped cover for it. The Hillsdale Daily spread the governments narrative, ignored the corruption and barely covered the ongoing case.
WCSR told listeners that its review of more than 400 pages of sworn testimony failed to support Hillsdale Conservatives’ claims.
Our February 8 article pointed readers directly to the transcript, including testimony that Dane admitted “remove” meant “delete” regarding an EPB flash drive election folder and that he personally deleted EPB flash-card data many times since 2020.
Prior coverage:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/02/08/when-wcsr-claims-the-court-record-refutes-you-and-the-court-video-says-otherwise/
That is why primary sources matter.
When institutions protect themselves, they do not usually announce the cover-up.
They call it context.
They call it procedure.
They call it security.
They call it anything except what ordinary people can see with their own eyes.
Now Michigan Fair Elections Is Saying It Too
This is no longer just a Hillsdale Conservatives story.
Michigan Fair Elections Institute has now reported on the collapse of the felony case, writing that Judge Lisznyai dismissed all felony charges and found that the district court bindover was an “error of law.” MFEI also reported that the remaining misdemeanor count against Scott was remanded back to district court.
MFEI’s report centers the issue Hillsdale officials and local media tried to bury: the Attorney General’s felony case depended on treating information as “confidential” when the statute did not say what prosecutors needed it to say.
That is what Scott’s defense argued.
That is what the circuit court recognized.
That is what the public was told did not matter.
Now it matters.
The State built a felony prosecution on a legal theory the circuit court has rejected.
The district court accepted it, while trying to pass it off.
Local officials hid behind it.
Local media covered for it.
County leaders avoided accountability because of it.
And all the while, the conduct exposed during the prosecution sat in the public record, waiting for one honest official to care.
Now the question is not whether Hillsdale Conservatives were too loud, too radical.
The question is why so many officials were so quiet.
The Question Now
Now that the felony case has been quashed, Hillsdale County has nowhere left to hide.
The State’s theory failed.
The “missing tabulator” story failed.
The effort to criminalize legal consultation failed.
The attempt to make Stephanie Scott the villain failed.
So now the public deserves answers.
Will the Sheriff investigate the sworn testimony and election-record issues exposed in this case?
Will the Prosecutor review the conduct of county officials with the same seriousness ordinary citizens would face?
Will the County Commissioners place this matter on the agenda and deliberate in public?
Will the Attorney General, who pursued Scott and Lambert, examine the officials whose testimony undermined the State’s own narrative?
Will anyone in power hold accountable the people this witch hunt exposed?
Probably not willingly.
Because if they were willing, they would have done it already.
That is the most damning part.
Hillsdale County’s problem is no longer a lack of evidence.
It is a lack of honest government.
The Real Scandal Was Always the System Protecting Itself
Stephanie Scott did not destroy Hillsdale County’s confidence in elections.
The prosecution against her did.
The officials who refused to act did.
The media outlets that ignored the record did.
The commissioners who dodged public deliberation did.
The people who treated statutory duties as optional and citizen oversight as a nuisance did.
This case exposed something far bigger than one township.
It exposed a county accountability chain that works very well when aimed at outsiders, dissenters, and inconvenient clerks, but suddenly forgets how government works when the questions point inward.
That is why this dismissal matters.
Not because the fight is over.
Because the excuse is over.
The witch hunt collapsed.
The press release is out.
The felony charges are gone.
The court has spoken.
Michigan Fair Elections is reporting it.
The bill language is now exposing the same record-preservation issue officials pretended was imaginary.
And Hillsdale County still has not answered the question.
Who investigates the conduct this case exposed?
Who holds accountable the officials whose sworn testimony raised the real election-record questions?
Who protects township clerks who try to uphold the law when state and county power comes down on them?
Who secures Hillsdale County’s elections from manipulation, deletion, seizure, and political control?
Since Stephanie Scott was not the criminal, why are the people this case exposed still being protected?
Those are the questions now.
And every sheriff, prosecutor, commissioner, legislator, and media outlet in Hillsdale County should be made to answer it.
Source Links
Order Granting Motion to Quash Bindover, April 30, 2026:
https://drive.google.com/file/u/0/d/1x_mCIR6af_wShrTFIcFuYbtt47XHfRX0/view?usp=drivesdk&usp=embed_facebook&pli=1
Kallman Legal Group Press Release, April 30, 2026:
Brief requesting dismissal:
https://tinyurl.com/mzcb62xv
Order:
https://tinyurl.com/2snyr9sz
Transcripts of a Broken Republic: Michigan on the Brink:
https://hillsdale.press/2025/09/18/__trashed-2/
The Tabulator That Was Never Missing:
https://hillsdale.press/2025/12/04/the-tabulator-that-was-never-missing/
Agenda Control vs. Public Duty: The Hillsdale County Election Dispute:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/01/15/agenda-control-vs-public-duty-the-hillsdale-county-election-dispute/
Notice Given, Record Made: Why Hillsdale County Commissioners Are Now Accountable:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/01/29/notice-given-record-made-why-hillsdale-county-commissioners-are-now-accountable/
When WCSR Claims the Court Record Refutes You and the Court Video Says Otherwise:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/02/08/when-wcsr-claims-the-court-record-refutes-you-and-the-court-video-says-otherwise/
Pivotal Hearing Monday in State’s Case Against Scott and Lambert:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/04/09/pivotal-hearing-monday-in-states-case-against-scott-and-lambert/
The Real Scandal in Hillsdale Was Never Stephanie Scott:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/04/14/the-real-scandal-in-hillsdale-was-never-stephanie-scott/
St. Joseph County: When a Real Sheriff and Clerk Answer Questions:
https://hillsdale.press/2026/04/29/st-joseph-county-when-a-real-sheriff-and-clerk-answer-questions/
Michigan Fair Elections Institute Report:
https://www.mifairelections.org/post/felony-case-against-michigan-township-clerk-collapses-after-judge-finds-prior-ruling-was-error-of-l
HB 5717, Michigan Legislature:
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2026-HB-5717
HB 5717, Bill Text:
https://legiscan.com/MI/text/HB5717/id/3393020
WILX Coverage of HB 5717:
https://www.wilx.com/2026/03/18/michigan-bill-would-allow-townships-hire-outside-election-officials-when-clerk-seat-is-vacant/
HB 5845, LegiScan Summary:
https://legiscan.com/MI/bill/HB5845/2025
HB 5845, Bill Text:
https://legiscan.com/MI/text/HB5845/2025
Michigan Judicial Institute, Bindover and Remand Procedure:
https://www.courts.michigan.gov/493410/siteassets/publications/benchbooks/criminal/crimpttresponsivehtml5.zip/Crim_PTT/Ch_7_Probable_Cause_Conferences%2C_Preliminary_Examinations%2C_and_Bindover/Bindover_Following_Preliminary_Examination.htm
52 U.S.C. § 20701, Federal Election Records Retention:
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&num=0&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title52-section20701
MCL 168.811, Election Returns, Records, and Applications Preservation:
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-168-811
MCL 168.520, Illegal or Fraudulent Registration, Clerk Powers and Duties:
https://legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-168-520
How long will the same people be allowed to use their elected positions to manipulated elections? Why do they need to in the first place? And now, coincidently State Representative Jennifer Wortz “Commissioner Brent Leiningers sister” needs to be added.
in liberty,
Hillsdale Conservitives
Lance Lashaway
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