North Las Vegas schedules Friday recount in council race decided by a single vote

The incumbent North Las Vegas city councilman who lost his seat by a single vote officially requested a recount Tuesday.

"With a one-vote margin, we have an obligation to the voters out there to eliminate any discrepancies," Richard Cherchio said.

Clark County election officials scheduled the recount for 1 p.m. Friday. Cherchio paid $600 for the recount.

Wade Wagner, a 48-year-old dentist, defeated Cherchio, 64, by a single vote in the June 7 election. But that was just the beginning of the drama in the Ward 4 race.

Officials soon discovered that an election worker had mistakenly allowed an ineligible voter to cast a ballot in one Ward 4 precinct. The City Council approved a redo of the election in that precinct, but the city was barred from holding a new election by District Judge Elizabeth Gonzales, who also ordered the city to certify the original election results.

Another judge then temporarily prohibited the city from presenting Wagner with an election certificate.

Gonzales resolved the legal challenges Monday, allowing Wagner to be sworn in Monday night as the new council representative.

The Clark County Election Department will conduct the recount. Cherchio got to choose three precincts from Ward 4 whose votes he wants hand-counted.

If results from that count change the totals by five votes or 1 percent, whichever is greater, election officials will recount the results from every precinct in the ward by hand.

If the results don't change by that margin, officials will machine-count all the votes from the remaining precincts.

The recount should be completed by the end of the day Friday, said Larry Lomax, Clark County's registrar of voters.

Wagner said he expected Cherchio to request the recount and "will deal with it on Friday."

The only local recount Lomax remembered changing the total number of votes was in the close 1998 contest between incumbent Sen. Harry Reid and then-Rep. John Ensign. Ensign picked up 11 votes in the recount; Reid picked up 38. The result was the same, though: Reid still won, by 428 votes.

Nevada now uses an electronic voting system rather than the traditional punch-cards to record voter ballots.

Cherchio wouldn't say whether he will concede the race if the recount results are the same -- 1,831 votes for Wagner, 1,830 for Cherchio -- or challenge the election in court.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.