THE HILLSDALE CONSERVATIVES
Truth • Liberty • Local Stewardship
Hillsdale County, Michigan • Sept, 25nd, 2026 • 2¢

One year ago this week, Hillsdale Conservatives found themselves packing up their booth at the Hillsdale County Fair.

The dispute centered on posters and flyers concerning Hillsdale County Clerk Abraham “Abe” Dane and his handling of election records and ballots. FOX47 later described the incident as the group being expelled from the fair over a “sharply-worded flyer and poster” about Dane. The Hillsdalian likewise reported that the dispute centered on signage accusing Dane of taking election ballots. https://www.wilx.com

A year has passed.

The posters are gone.

The booth was removed.

But Abe Dane remains Hillsdale County Clerk. The county’s own website continues to list him in that office. Hillsdale County

More importantly, considerably more of the underlying record is public today than it was when Hillsdale Conservatives were escorted out of the fair.

Court transcripts have been released.

Charges against Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Lambert Junttila have collapsed.

Dane’s sworn testimony is public.

Another township election controversy arose in Fayette.

Then another in Moscow.

And legislation supported by Dane remains pending in Lansing that would expressly change the law governing what a township may do when its own clerk is unavailable. MichiganVotes

So on the anniversary of the controversy that started at the fair, it is worth going back to the beginning.

Not to the poster, we have a new one for this year!

To the record.

Adams Township: before there was a warrant

The Adams Township story did not begin with Michigan State Police arriving with a search warrant.

County officials had already entered the township hall and removed election property.

An October 26, 2021 email from Dane became an admitted exhibit during his later testimony. In it, Dane described how he and then-County Clerk Marney Kast had gone to Adams Township Hall the previous afternoon and arranged to acquire voting equipment, absentee-ballot applications, ballots and other materials. Hillsdale Conservative Network

That first removal was not conducted under an MSP search warrant.

The county was acting after Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater had removed then-Clerk Stephanie Scott from administering the upcoming November election and directed that the county clerk or a designee perform the necessary election functions.

The state had issued an administrative directive concerning administration of the upcoming election. “Lawfully?”

It had not yet obtained a judicial search warrant.

After county officials collected equipment from the township, they determined that the tablet component of the tabulator was not with the equipment they had taken.

Scott had retained it inside the clerk’s office.

Michigan State Police then became involved. “Where was the Sheriff?”

On October 29, MSP executed a search warrant at Adams Township Hall and recovered the equipment from a locked location inside Scott’s office. Contemporary reporting documented that sequence at the time. Bridge Michigan

Years later, that supposedly concealed tabulator became Count Five of the criminal prosecution against Scott.

It did not survive the preliminary examination. “Surprise”

District Judge Megan Stiverson, the same judge who had signed the earlier warrant, dismissed the tabulator-related count after finding insufficient probable cause to bind Scott over on that charge. Hillsdale Conservative Network

But the tabulator was only the beginning.

Then Dane took the 2020 ballots

On November 5, 2021, FOX47 reported something separate from the tabulator seizure.

Dane had taken possession of all November 3, 2020 Adams Township ballots, absentee-voter envelopes and ballot applications and transported them to the Hillsdale County Clerk’s office. “Lawfully?”

Adams Township Supervisor Mark Nichols told FOX47 at the time that it appeared Dane had acted on his own initiative. https://www.wilx.com

These were not records from the November 2021 election Dane had been assigned to administer.

They were records from the previous year’s election.

Nearly four years later, Dane was placed under oath and questioned about exactly that act. “Finally”

He admitted taking the November 2020 ballots. “Theft?”

He acknowledged that the township clerk had custody of them. “Ouch”

He acknowledged that they had nothing to do with the November 2021 election he was administering. “No kidding”

Dane explained that he personally believed the records should be moved to the county because he feared someone might manipulate them and he might later be blamed. “Feeling guilty?”

Then came the question of legal authority.

When asked to identify a single law allowing him to take Adams Township’s ballots from the preceding election, Dane answered:

“No.”

That answer is in the certified preliminary-examination record. Hillsdale Conservative Network

No characterization is necessary.

Dane says he took them. “Theft?”

Dane says they were from the prior election.

And when asked under oath to identify a law allowing him to take them, Dane could not. “Ouch”

Then came the deleted election data

The August 2025 examination also turned to Michigan’s electronic poll books.

Dane acknowledged that the EPB flash drives contained election records.

He acknowledged that election officers have legal obligations concerning preservation of election records.

He acknowledged that Stephanie Scott had objected years earlier to deleting the EPB information. “#Scottwasframed”

In the contemporaneous email exchange, Dane had responded to her concerns by telling her she had a point. Under oath, he confirmed making that statement, although he later explained that he had been referring more broadly to the turmoil surrounding the 2020 election. Hillsdale Conservative Network “Whoopsy”

Then Dane was asked whether he personally had deleted EPB flash-drive data since 2020.

His answer:

“Many times.”

The transcript further shows that Dane acknowledged he was not an expert regarding all of the underlying EPB data and that, after deletion, the original electronic information could no longer be independently compared with the printed reports generated from it. Hillsdale Conservative Network

The Michigan Bureau of Elections has defended the deletion procedure, maintaining that printed poll-book records were retained and that deletion of the electronic version was longstanding practice intended in part to protect personal information.

That is the state’s position. “Trust the Government”

But it does not change what Dane admitted.

He knew the devices contained election records.

He knew election officers had preservation obligations.

He knew Scott had specifically questioned deletion.

And he testified that he deliberately deleted EPB data many times. “Fraud?”

Whether those facts satisfy the elements of any criminal offense has not been adjudicated against Dane. WCSR, for example, reviewed the testimony and disputed Hillsdale Conservatives’ characterization that Dane had admitted to illegally destroying election records. Radio Hillsdale “Your local media is in on covering it up”

The underlying admissions themselves, however, are in the transcript. “Public Records, not opinions”

Meanwhile, the prosecution against Scott and Lambert collapsed

The testimony concerning Dane was produced during Michigan’s prosecution of former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott and attorney Stefanie Lambert Junttila.

On April 30, 2026, Hillsdale County Circuit Judge Sara Lisznyai granted the defense motion to quash and dismissed the felony charges against both women. “Finally”

Lisznyai concluded that the lower court had committed an error of law and abused its discretion in binding them over on the felony counts. One misdemeanor charge against Scott remained for district-court proceedings. Bridge Michigan

The State asked Lisznyai to reconsider.

She denied that request on June 16.

So the public record was left in an unusual posture. “Ouch”

Scott had been prosecuted over election equipment and records.

The tabulator count had already failed at the preliminary-examination stage.

The remaining felony bindovers were then quashed by the circuit court.

And sitting inside the same underlying court record was sworn testimony from the sitting county clerk acknowledging that he took the prior election’s ballots, could identify no statute authorizing that action, and had deleted EPB flash-drive data many times.

Fayette Township: a different election, the same question about authority

By 2026, the controversy moved outside Adams Township.

Fayette Township had no available elected clerk. “Wonder why”

Michigan law already prescribed what should happen.

MCL 168.373 stated that when neither a township clerk nor deputy township clerk was available, the township board was to appoint a qualified person who was a registered elector of that township to perform the necessary election functions. Michigan Legislature

Then came House Bill 5717. “Jennifer Wortz, your State Rep. Brent Leininger’s sister is in on it too”

Introduced March 12, HB 5717 proposed changing §373 so that, rather than being limited to appointing a registered township elector, a township could contract with an accredited election administrator meeting the bill’s qualifications. LegiScan

Dane testified in support of that legislation before the House Election Integrity Committee. “Shocking”

Then, before HB 5717 had become law, Dane told the Detroit Free Press that the Litchfield city clerk had been contracted to run Fayette Township’s May and August elections. AOL.com

The May 5 election went forward.

The statutory question was raised immediately.

A complaint alleged that the outside clerk did not satisfy §373’s township-elector requirement, and County Canvasser Lawrence Peter subsequently placed the issue into the canvassing record and requested legal review. The public records reproduced in the resulting investigation show Peter specifically pointing to §373 and questioning the authority under which the arrangement had occurred. Hillsdale Conservative Network

The chronology is not particularly complicated:

Existing law required a registered elector of the township.

Legislation was introduced to permit outside contracting instead.

Dane supported that legislation.

Before it became law, an outside city clerk was used in Fayette.

There has not been a published court judgment resolving whether the Fayette arrangement violated §373. “Nobody will investigate, nothing to see here”

But the question was no longer theoretical.

Then came Moscow Township

Less than three months later, the issue returned. “Why not, nobody cares”

Moscow Township Clerk Sheri Gower resigned effective July 31, only days before the August 4 primary. “Wonder why?”

Moscow appointed resident Jennifer Campbell as a temporary election administrator.

Then the Hillsdale County Board of Commissioners considered something additional. “More unlawful acts”

Resolution 26-082 authorized Board Chairman Mark Wiley and Clerk Abe Dane to execute an election-services agreement with Moscow Township.

The agreement identified Hillsdale County itself as the contractor and contemplated county employees or subcontractors performing election services, including work the township’s temporary administrator might not be able to perform.

The five commissioners present approved the resolution 5-0. Hillsdale Conservative Network

Again, MCL 168.373 still contained the requirement that the township board appoint a qualified registered elector of the township.

Again, HB 5717 had not become law.

And this time the proposed contracting arrangement was written down, placed before the Board of Commissioners, publicly questioned before the vote, and approved anyway.

Sworn referrals were subsequently submitted asking investigators to determine what election functions county employees actually performed and whether those acts exceeded existing statutory authority.

Those referrals are allegations requesting investigation, not findings of guilt. Hillsdale Conservative Network

But the contract, resolution and vote are not allegations.

They are records.

And HB 5717 is still not law

As of September 25, HB 5717 has passed the Michigan House 104-2 but remains pending in the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee. LegiScan

The bill would replace the current registered-elector mechanism with express authority for the township board to contract with an accredited individual meeting the bill’s requirements. LegiScan

One important point should be kept straight:

HB 5717 does not appear to say that it retroactively validates anything Hillsdale County did in Fayette or Moscow.

The issue is chronology.

Existing §373 prescribed one procedure.

Officials used outside arrangements that became the subject of statutory objections.

At the same time, legislation was moving through Lansing that would expressly authorize a broader contracting procedure in the future.

Whether Fayette or Moscow already had some other lawful basis for the assistance they received is a question for a competent court, election authority or investigator to resolve.

But the Legislature’s proposed change cannot simply be substituted for the language that existed when those elections were administered.

One year later

That brings us back to the Hillsdale County Fair.

One year ago, Hillsdale Conservatives were removed after a dispute over material criticizing Abe Dane.

A year later, the county clerk remains in office. Hillsdale County

But the public record is considerably larger.

There is sworn testimony concerning the removal of Adams Township’s November 2020 ballots.

There is sworn testimony concerning repeated deletion of EPB data.

There is a dismissed tabulator count.

There are felony charges against Scott and Lambert that were later quashed by the circuit court.

There is the Fayette election.

There is the Moscow contract.

And there is HB 5717, still sitting in the Senate, proposing express statutory authority for a form of outside election contracting that existing §373 did not expressly provide. LegiScan

So the question surrounding Fayette and Moscow can be stated without embellishment:

Were officials acting within authority that already existed under Michigan law, or were they using arrangements that the Legislature was only then considering expressly authorizing?

HB 5717 may eventually become law. “Our Government is Corrupt”

If it does, its text would govern according to its enacted effective date; the version currently available does not establish retroactive legalization of earlier conduct. LegiScan

That leaves the earlier conduct where it has always belonged:

Under the law that existed when it occurred. “Unlawful, violations?”

And one year after a fair booth was removed for putting Abe Dane’s conduct in front of the public, the underlying questions are still in the record waiting for an investigation that no authority will undertake. “Where’s the Sheriff?”

in liberty,
Lance Lashaway