Pip: Hillsdale Conservative Network has been tracking a local Michigan prosecution for years — and this week, the court handed the State its second loss in a row.

Mara: That's right. Today we're covering the denial of the State's motion for reconsideration in the criminal cases against former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Juntilla, and what that ruling exposes about accountability in Hillsdale County.

Pip: Let's start with what the court actually decided — and who's still owed an answer.

Reconsideration Denied: A Clerk, a County, and a Warrant That Shouldn't Have Existed

Mara: The core tension here is a stark inversion: a township clerk was criminally charged for conduct that the county clerk himself admitted to. On June 16, 2026, Judge Sara Lisznyai denied the State's Motion for Reconsideration in the Scott and Juntilla cases. The State had one more chance to justify this prosecution — and the court wasn't persuaded.

Pip: The post puts it plainly: "Hillsdale County Clerk Abe Dane admitted he had no authority to seize the ballots and tabulator from Adams Township." That admission sits at the center of everything.

Mara: And the upshot is direct — if the official who admitted unauthorized action wasn't charged, while the clerk who objected was, that inversion is the scandal. The post calls it exactly that.

Pip: Now a 42-day clock is running. The State decides whether to keep pushing, or the remaining misdemeanor returns to district court for what the post calls a ceremonial dismissal. Ceremonial, because the damage is already done.

Mara: The post reserves real credit for Judge Lisznyai, describing her as "the first elected official in this entire tragedy, other than Stephanie Scott herself, to stand on the law and carry out her duty in the face of overwhelming institutional pressure." Two officials stood where the Constitution required. The post asks how many others had the power to stop this and chose silence instead.

Pip: And silence, the post argues, is not neutrality — it's participation.

Mara: The warrant question is equally serious. The post asks directly whether Judge Stiverson was told that Dane had admitted he lacked authority, or that the State's own election director had described the electronic poll book issue as policy rather than statute. If not, someone chose what the judge saw.

Pip: The Sheriff gets the same scrutiny. He was informed by the Adams Township Supervisor. He knew State Police were executing a warrant against a clerk for conduct tied to the county clerk. The post asks where he was — and notes that St. Joseph County officials, when Stephanie Scott later brought election-security concerns there, answered the question Hillsdale avoided: if statutes were violated, they should be investigated.

Mara: The commissioners aren't spared either. Lawrence Peter of the Hillsdale County Election Commission put the Fayette Township problem in writing, named the statute, and asked for review. The response wasn't a legal explanation. The post says it was pressure — the same kind Stephanie Scott faced.

Pip: And then comes House Bill 5717, sponsored by Representative Jennifer Wortz and Representative Jay DeBoyer, which would allow townships to contract outside election administrators when a clerk is absent. The post's question is pointed: if the old law already allowed what happened in Hillsdale County, why does the Legislature need to create that authority now?

Mara: The post is direct about the answer: "Tomorrow's law cannot erase yesterday's violation." It frames HB 5717 as after-the-fact legislative cover — an effort to convert the disputed conduct that helped prosecute Scott into lawful procedure going forward. It also notes that Representative Wortz's brother, Brent Leininger, is a Hillsdale County Commissioner who has been central to local Republican Party disputes intersecting with the county clerk's office.

Pip: The pattern the post identifies runs: break the law, threaten the objector, protect the official, change the rule, call it reform.

Mara: The post closes with a minimum demand — not a press release, not another attorney memo, but a formal outside investigation into the county clerk's conduct, the warrant process, the Adams Township seizure, the Fayette Township election, and the pattern of threats. Dismissal of the final charge, it argues, answers none of those questions.

Pip: Forty-two days for Hillsdale County government to decide whether it keeps hiding behind silence — or faces what was done in Adams Township.

Mara: The through-line here is accountability deferred — a prosecution that collapsed, a warrant that shouldn't have issued, and officials who still haven't answered for any of it.

Pip: One judge said no. The question is whether anyone else in Hillsdale County finds the same courage before the clock runs out.