The Lake County Board of Elections rejected a protest from Bevin Cormack, a Republican seeking the 14th Congressional District seat, to get Patrick Gene Awtrey, another Republican running for the position, removed from the ballot.

At a Tuesday hearing that lasted more than two and a half hours, the board voted 4-0 to dismiss Cormack’s claims of “election falsification” against Awtrey and keep him as a candidate for the seat that includes representing all of Trumbull County in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Cormack said she saw people signing Awtrey’s nominating petitions at a Geauga County Tea Party meeting on Feb. 1 in Chesterland without him witnessing the signatures, which would not only be an election violation but could possibly be a crime. She didn’t provide any witnesses but herself during the hearing.

Awtrey of Parma Heights had three witnesses — all officers in the Geauga County Tea Party — testify Tuesday that they saw people signing his petitions in his presence. Awtrey also said Cormack of Chesterland was near him when the signatures were collected at the Feb. 1 meeting.

“All of the allegations are false,” Awtrey said.

He added that the hearing was a “waste of time and an act of desperation” and questioned Cormack’s honesty.

Despite seeking to have Awtrey removed as a candidate, Cormack said: “I wasn’t trying to get anyone off the ballot,” and that she was “trying to do the right thing” because Awtrey displayed “a lack of integrity.”

Awtrey said when he was at the Tea Party meeting, he placed his nominating petitions on a table as requested by the organization. He said he then spoke to the audience and listened to most of the main speaker’s address, but no one had signed his petitions when he wasn’t near the documents.

Cormack and Awtrey both filed in the Republican primary to challenge U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012.

The district includes all of Trumbull, Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga counties and all but two communities in Portage County. Trumbull is the district’s second-most populous county behind Lake.

Matt Kilboy of Deerfield is the lone Democrat in the race.