Uncounted ballots discovered in close City Council race

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman touched off a kerfuffle at his regular Thursday news conference when he mentioned that the city had on Wednesday discovered 18 uncounted mail-in ballots in the extremely close race between Las Vegas City Council candidates Stavros Anthony and Glenn Trowbridge.

Anthony defeated Trowbridge by a mere 10 votes on Tuesday.

Goodman said he had “heard rumors” of the ballots being discovered at the post office Wednesday morning.

“I’m advised that when they went on the evening of the election to pick up the last batch, they picked up everything,” he said. “And when they went the day after the election, they found 18” more ballots at the post office.

“I don’t know when they were postmarked or whether they were at all available to be counted for the election,” Goodman said.

But Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said it doesn’t matter when ballots are postmarked; they are not counted if they are received late. The 18 ballots were not received by the close of voting and therefore would not be counted.

“The laws in Nevada are the ballots must be in our possession by 7 o’clock on election night,” Lomax said. “Every election, mail ballots come in late. They’re not counted.”

A city spokesman said the mailbox into which ballots are deposited was checked after the close of polls Tuesday. At some point on Wednesday, 18 more ballots were delivered and were picked up by a city staffer.

Glenn Trowbridge, 65, vowed on election night to pursue a recount, calling the election results “practically a tie.”

He received 3,299 votes to Anthony’s 3,309 votes.

Reached on his cell phone today in Oregon, where he is vacationing until Tuesday, Trowbridge said he still plans to pursue the recount. He hadn’t heard anything about the 18 uncounted ballots and was unimpressed.

“Right now, I’m going to finish my taco,” he said.

A candidate has three days after the vote is canvassed to request a recount. The vote is slated to be canvassed Monday.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at 702-383-0285