Two precincts must cast votes again

Two voting irregularities discovered in the North Las Vegas primary election results coupled with a request for a recount mean residents in two precincts must recast their votes.

Only the 563 people who voted in the affected precincts will be eligible to return to the polls on May 20, City Clerk Eileen Sevigny said this morning following a meeting with the Clark County Election Department.

Early voting will be held at City Hall May 17-19.

The City Council was scheduled to validate the results of the May 4 primary for two, four-year council seats Tuesday, after which a recount request filed by council candidate Ron Long could have been formally recognized.

Long lost the fourth-place spot to move on to the June 8 general election by two votes to opponent Marcia Blake.

If there are no further requests for a recount after the results of the revote are certified by the council on May 21, early voting for the general election is scheduled to begin May 24, Sevigny said.

In Henderson Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved the canvass of its primary election. But in North Las Vegas, Sevigny presented the City Council with an affidavit stating that in precinct 4005, a machine was activated twice for the same voter and in precinct 4008, the recording of an additional ballot could not be resolved.

City Attorney Richard Maurer said because two candidates were separated by two votes, the results of the election could be altered by the discrepancies.

"That coupled with an application from a candidate (for a recount), mandates that we revote those two precincts," Maurer said.

All 13 council candidates will again be on the ballot. The positions of incumbents William Robinson and Paula Brown, who received the top two number of votes, respectively, are not threatened.

"This is a revote, not a new vote," Maurer said.

The number of voters that turned out in precinct 4005 is 405, compared to 158 in 4008.

The cost of the revote, which will be the responsibility of the city, has yet to be determined, Sevigny said.

In the 20 years she has held her position, Sevigny said this is the first time a revote has been required.

After the council meeting, Blake supporter Mike Winne called the revote ridiculous.

"This has never happened before (in North Las Vegas)," he said. "It could go either way for Ron or Marcia, but the incumbents are safe."

What the revote doesn't mean is that the city has escaped the threat of a recount once the new votes are tabulated.

Long said if he loses again, he reserves the right to demand a recount. And members of Blake's camp assured that if she loses, she will demand a recount.

If a recount is requested, it would be unlikely the city could hold the general election June 8, which means it would have to hold a special election later this summer.

Only 17.5 percent of the city's registered voters turned out for the primary. Long collected 1,135 votes compared to Blake's 1,137. Robinson received 2,236 votes, while Brown garnered 1,966, followed by Planning Commissioner Shari Buck with 1,419.

Long, a 39-year-old partner in a landscaping business, originally said he did not want a recount, but later changed his mind because of the close vote and the chance for human error involving 854 paper ballots that were mailed in and hand-fed into a card-reading machine.

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