NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- In North Las Vegas, the race for City Council Ward IV came down to a single vote. Wednesday, the losing candidate is calling for a recount.
Incumbent Richard Cherchio lost the race, but says he wants to ensure they were counted correctly.
The re-count process, according to Clark County election officials, will begin with a hand-count of three precincts chosen by Cherchio. If the results change by five votes, officials will hand-count the remaining precincts. If not, the remainder will be tallied by computer.
The race between Cherchio and newcomer Wade Wagner was one of the dirtiest this season. North Las Vegas' police and fire unions waged a brutal assault against Cherchio in open retaliation for his support of cuts to public safety.
The city currently faces a $30 million budget deficit.
Websites with names like Cherchio's Dirty Deals and Wade the Puppet punctuated the campaign. Yet despite the attacks, Cherchio says he is looking forward.
"That was then and today my focus must be on all those people who did vote, regardless of how they voted, and to make sure that their vote was tallied properly," he said.
"It was a very close election and we won and I guess that's the law -- that you get a chance to recount if you want to. So we'll just wait to see what happens," said Wagner.
Wagner won with 1,831. Cherchio had 1,830 votes. Cherchio has until June 21 to request the recount, which he says he will do.
The last time a recount detected an error in Nevada was back in 1998 in the race between Senator Harry Reid and then-Representative John Ensign. Counters then determined seven votes were incorrectly tabulated.
But that was back in the days of punch card ballots and the recount did not change the outcome of the race.
