Recount in skin-tight Washoe County Assembly race leaves Democrat’s win intact
CARSON CITY — A Republican Assembly incumbent who lost a squeaker of a race in Northern Nevada on Election Day picked up two votes in a recount on Monday, but the net results were the same.
Skip Daly, D-Sparks, remained the winner over Assemblywoman Jill Dickman, R-Sparks, by a margin of 36 votes in the unofficial summary produced by Washoe County Registrar of Voters Luanne Cutler.
The ballots in the District 31 race were recounted at her request.
Daly, who served the district before losing in 2014 to Dickman, recaptured the seat in the 2016 vote by the slimmest of margins on Nov. 8, winning with 50.06 of the vote to Dickman’s 49.94, or a total of 38 votes.
The recount difference was two fewer votes for Daly out of more than 30,000 ballots cast, but the percentages remained the same. The district has a Republican voter registration edge.
Dickman, who requested the recount on Friday, congratulated Daly on Monday and said she won’t contest the results any further.
According to Nevada Revised Statutes, the Washoe County Commission has five business days to canvass the results of the recount. Until the results are canvassed at the Nov. 29 board meeting the results are not official.
Daly was part of a “blue wave” of Democratic voters who gave control of the Legislature back to Democrats after they lost control of both houses in 2014. Dickman was one of seven GOP incumbents who lost reelection on Nov. 8.
A change in the outcome would not have given Republicans the majority. Democrats now have a 27-15 edge in the 42-member Assembly.
It is not the first recount in a close Assembly race in Washoe County. In 2014, Republican Lisa Krasner sought a recount after losing by 11 votes to fellow GOP incumbent Randy Kirner. The recount upheld Kirner’s tiny margin of victory.
Kirner opted not to run for reelection to the Assembly 26 District seat this year. Krasner won the seat and will serve in the 2017 session.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.
