萊克縣店員周一舉行了一枚硬幣翻轉，以決定在兩名候選人獲得完全相同的選票之後，在Shields Township受託人的比賽中裁定一名獲獎者。

萊克縣店員周一舉行了一枚硬幣翻轉，以決定在兩名候選人獲得完全相同的選票之後，在Shields Township受託人的比賽中裁定一名獲獎者。

A Lake County judge on Monday morning dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt the certification of the election results for Shields Township trustee.

週一早上，一名湖縣法官駁回了一項訴訟，旨在阻止Shields Township受託人的選舉結果證明。

The lawsuit, filed by Michelle Parnell, one of the candidates for trustee, alleged that there were errors in the election process that could have affected the outcome of the race. Parnell lost the election by 40 votes.

米歇爾·帕內爾（Michelle Parnell）提起的訴訟是受託人的候選人之一，聲稱選舉過程中存在錯誤，可能會影響比賽的結果。帕內爾以40票輸掉選舉。

Judge Charles R. Smith Jr. said he was dismissing the lawsuit because Parnell had not shown that there was a “clear legal right” to the relief she was seeking.

小查爾斯·史密斯（Charles R.

The lawsuit focused on two main issues:

該訴訟的重點是兩個主要問題：

* A small number of ballots were rejected by election officials because they did not include a vote for trustee, even though the voters had made choices for other races on the ballot. According to state law, such ballots should have been counted for all of the races in which a vote was made, but not for trustee.

*選舉官員拒絕了少數選票，因為他們不包括對受託人的投票，即使選民在選票上選擇了其他比賽。根據州法律，應計算出投票的所有種族，但不為受託人計算。

* A voter registration application was rejected by a precinct judge because it did not include the applicant’s full legal name. According to a 1986 state law, the application should have been accepted despite the missing name.

*選民註冊申請被專區法官拒絕，因為它不包括申請人的完整法律名稱。根據1986年的一項州法律，儘管名稱丟失，該申請應已被接受。

Smith said he did not believe that either of these errors would have affected the outcome of the election. He noted that only a few ballots were rejected for the lack of a trustee vote, and that the voter registration application was for a precinct where all of the candidates received a nearly equal number of votes.

史密斯說，他不認為這兩個錯誤都會影響選舉的結果。他指出，僅由於缺乏受託人的投票而被拒絕了幾次選票，而且選民註冊申請是針對所有候選人獲得幾乎相等數量的選票的區域。

“It does not appear that any of the errors identified by the plaintiff would have changed the outcome of the election for any candidate,” Smith wrote in his order.

史密斯在他的命令中寫道：“看來原告確定的任何錯誤都不會改變任何候選人的選舉結果。”

The judge also said that he was dismissing the lawsuit because it was filed too late. The last day to file a contest to an election is 30 days after the election, but the lawsuit was not filed until May 1, which was more than 30 days after the April 1 election.

法官還說，他正在駁回訴訟，因為提起訴訟太晚了。參加選舉的最後一天是大選後30天，但直到4月1日大選後30天以上，該訴訟才提起訴訟。

Smith said that while the time limit for filing a contest is generally short, it is “not necessarily fatal” if the applicant can show that they were unable to file the lawsuit earlier due to “fraud or other sufficient cause.” However, in this case, Parnell did not show that she was unable to file the lawsuit earlier.

史密斯說，雖然提起競賽的時間限制通常很短，但如果申請人可以證明由於“欺詐或其他足夠的原因”，這不一定是致命的。但是，在這種情況下，帕內爾並沒有表明她無法提前提起訴訟。

“The errors identified by the plaintiff were readily apparent and could have been discovered with due diligence earlier in the time period for filing a contest,” Smith wrote in his order.

史密斯在他的命令中寫道：“原告發現的錯誤很明顯，可以在提交比賽的時期早些時候就盡職調查發現。”

Parnell’s lawsuit was the subject of a hearing Monday morning in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Lake County.

帕內爾（Parnell）的訴訟是周一上午在萊克縣第12司法法院舉行的聽證會的主題。

Attorneys for the county and for the other candidates in the election argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed. They said that Parnell had not shown that any of the errors identified in the lawsuit were material or would have affected the outcome of the election.

選舉中的縣和其他候選人的律師認為，應駁回訴訟。他們說，帕內爾沒有證明訴訟中發現的任何錯誤都是物質的，也不會影響選舉結果。

Parnell’s attorney, Robert J. Lustig, said that his client was seeking to have the election set aside and for the court to order a new election. Lustig argued that the errors by election officials showed a “failure to follow the law” and that the errors were "serious enough to warrant setting aside the election."

帕內爾的律師羅伯特·盧斯蒂格（Robert J. Lustig）說，他的委託人正在尋求將選舉擱置一旁，並要求法院下令新的選舉。盧斯蒂格（Lustig）認為，選舉官員的錯誤表明“未能遵守法律”，並且這些錯誤“足夠嚴重，可以保證擱置選舉”。

The errors by election officials in rejecting the voter registration application and in failing to count ballots for races where a vote was made could add up to 40 votes, which would be enough to change the outcome of the election, Lustig said.

Lustig說，選舉官員拒絕選民註冊申請的錯誤，並且未能計算進行投票的比賽的選票可能加起來40票，這足以改變選舉的結果。

Parnell's lawsuit also focused on a statement by Anthony Vega, the Lake County Clerk, in which Vega said that the county's new vote centers, which were implemented for the first time in the April 2024 election, were a success.

帕內爾（Parnell）的訴訟還集中在萊克縣店員安東尼·維加（Anthony Vega）的聲明上，維加說，該縣的新投票中心是在2024年4月大選中首次實施的，這是成功的。

"The new vote centers gave voters the freedom to cast their ballot at any site throughout the county on Election Day," Vega said in a press release last week. "Over 15% of Election Day voters took advantage of this option to vote at a center other than their assigned precinct."

Vega在上週的新聞稿中說：“新的投票中心使選民在選舉日在整個縣的任何地點進行投票自由。” “超過15％的選舉日選民利用這一選擇權在他們指定的區域以外的其他中心投票。”

Parnell's lawsuit stated that the press release by Vega was "false and misleading" because it failed to disclose that "a substantial number of voters were unable to vote at the assigned precinct due to administrative errors by the defendant county election officials."

帕內爾（Parnell）的訴訟指出，維加（Vega）的新聞稿是“錯誤和誤導性的”，因為它未能透露“由於被告縣選舉官員的行政錯誤，大量選民無法在指定的區域投票。”

The errors by the county's election officials in rejecting ballots and voter registration applications were "not isolated errors, but rather a pattern of conduct by the defendant county election officials to disregard the law in order to achieve a desired outcome," the lawsuit stated.

訴訟說，縣選舉官員拒絕選票和選民登記申請的錯誤是“不是孤立的錯誤，而是被告縣選舉官員無視法律以實現預期結果的行為模式。”

After the hearing, Lustig said that he and his client were "disappointed" by the judge's ruling.

聽證會後，盧斯蒂格說，法官的裁決使他和他的委託人“失望”。

"We believe that the errors by the county's election officials were serious and that they could have affected the outcome of the election," Lustig said.

盧斯蒂格說：“我們認為，縣選舉官員的錯誤是嚴重的，他們可能會影響選舉的結果。”

"We are considering our options for appeal."

“我們正在考慮上訴的選擇。”

The lawsuit was filed in the wake of the close race for Shields Township trustee.

該訴訟是在對Shields Township受託人的近距離比賽中提起的。

The candidates for the four trustee positions were Michelle Parnell, who received 964 votes; Trent Andrew Swarthout, who received 932 votes; Christopher Papas, who received 923 votes; and Christopher S

四個受託人職位的候選人是米歇爾·帕內爾（Michelle Parnell），他獲得了964票。特倫特·安德魯·斯沃瑟特（Trent Andrew Swarthout）獲得了932票；克里斯托弗·帕帕斯（Christopher Papas）獲得了923票；克里斯托弗（Christopher）