Wagner wins recount in North Las Vegas Ward 4 race

It took election workers just over two hours on Friday to come to the same conclusion they had on election night.

Wade Wagner, a 48-year-old dentist, had beaten incumbent North Las Vegas City Councilman Richard Cherchio, 64, by a single vote for the Ward 4 seat.

The result of the afternoon recount, requested by Cherchio, "validates the accuracy" of the June 7 election, said Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar of voters.

"Nothing changed," he said. "Wade Wagner still has one more vote. I'm very confident in the system we use to conduct elections."

The final tally was again 1,831 votes for Wagner, 1,830 for Cherchio.

Neither candidate attended the recount, held at county election center offices in North Las Vegas. But Bradley Schrager, an attorney for Cherchio, said: "This is far from over."

He stopped short of saying Cherchio will challenge the election in court.

"I'll go back to talk to him and we'll decide what decision is best for him and the citizens of North Las Vegas," Schrager said.

Cherchio didn't return a call seeking comment Friday afternoon.

Wagner was on Mount Charleston with his daughter and could not be reached.

Keith Buck, who was Wagner's campaign manager and is the husband of North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck, said he thinks "everybody is going to be satisfied" now that the recount is over.

Wagner, who was sworn in Monday, "will continue to be the sitting city councilman," Buck said.

Wagner's one-vote win in June 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 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 and Wagner was sworn in.

Election workers began the recount by hand-counting ballots in three precincts chosen by Cherchio -- precincts 4304, 2440 and 2500. The count matched exactly that on election night.

Officials then machine-counted votes from the remaining precincts.

Cherchio paid $600 for the recount. He did not request that results from Precinct 4306 -- where the ineligible voter cast a ballot -- be hand-counted because, he said earlier this week, he figured those results had already been well-scrutinized.

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 has blamed his loss on police and firefighter unions, who campaigned against him after he supported cuts to public safety to save money in the cash-strapped city.

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