WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners approved the hiring of an outside attorney to represent the Trumbull County Board of Elections during a protest hearing Tuesday.

Trumbull County Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa is challenging the candidacy of independent Denny Malloy, who is seeking to run against Cantalamessa in November. If he is allowed on the ballot, he will be the Democratic incumbent’s only opponent.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, wherein the four-member board that has been split on issues concerning Malloy’s candidacy in the past, will listen to Cantalamessa’s protest against Malloy’s candidacy and consider Malloy’s response.

People can access the meeting by calling 1-877-820-7831 with passcode 179546.

Although the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office usually represents the board of elections, because Cantalamessa is a commissioner who also is represented by the office in official matters, the prosecutor’s office asked for alternative counsel to be selected to avoid a conflict of interest.

Cantalamessa abstained in a vote Wednesday to hire attorney Patrick Wilson from Harrington, Hoppe and Mitchell for $240 an hour to represent the board during the protest hearing and in any other future litigation, according to the commissioners’ agenda.

Cantalamessa filed the protest to Malloy’s candidacy through attorney Dan Letson.

The protest was filed as Malloy and the board were waiting for the Secretary of State to weigh in a tie vote about whether or not to allow Malloy on the November ballot. Because Cantalamessa’s protest was filed, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose decided to wait to weigh in on the situation.

While Malloy and his supporters collected more than the 749 signatures required to get on the ballot, only 704 of the signatures originally were deemed valid by the board. Malloy challenged the ruling, and a reconsideration hearing was held.

After the reconsideration hearing, the board agreed to accept more of the signatures, but still left Malloy several signatures short because the board couldn’t agree on whether to allow signatures on a part-petition that included a case of “double signing.” While the two double signatures are not in question and won’t be accepted, the board couldn’t agree on whether the other signatures on the part-petition should be accepted.

Because it was a 2-2 split, with Republican Ron Knight and Democrat Diane Marchese voting to allow the signatures, and Republican Kathi Creed and Democrat Mark Alberini voting to reject them, LaRose’s office was asked to weigh in.

Cantalmessa’s protest letter contends Malloy may not be a true independent, which Malloy denies, and claims more of his petitions contain “defects.”