The race for Nevada governor has recently come under the spotlight as Republican candidate Joey Gilbert called for a state-wide recount of votes in the 2022 primary race, which he ultimately lost to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
Humboldt County finished the vote recount in just under six hours on June 30, finding no discrepancies in numbers, according to Humboldt County Clerk Tami Rae Spero.
The Humboldt County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting on July 7 to accept the recount numbers and certified that the numbers were both full, true and accurate.
All Board members were present, with Commissioners Ron Cerri and Jesse Hill present via web-call for the certification.
The motion to accept the vote recount numbers passed unanimously in a motion made by Vicechair Ken Tipton.
“There were no changes. The totals are exactly the same as what [the Board of Commissioners] certified to on June 24,” reported Spero.
Commissioner Ron Cerri asked Clerk Spero about the cost to the county for the recount and according to Spero, the county must put forth an estimate, but will be reimbursed for the man-hours it took the recount board and assistants to do the recount, which can legally take up to five days.
“[The costs] were nowhere near what we estimated because we estimated for five days,” said Spero, but explained that the recount was finished on the first day.
Gilbert will be footing the bill for the recount, which was originally estimated to cost approximately $191,00 with all Nevada counties combined.
Candidates have the potential to be reimbursed for the cost of the recount only if it turns out that the recount changes in their favor.
Gilbert came out on top in Humboldt County and obtained 1,079 of the 1,690 votes for Republican governor candidate and Lombardo obtained 611, but Humboldt County only amounts to a very small percentage of votes cast in the state of Nevada, with less than 50 percent of the registered voters—4,298 votes, or 45.37 percent, of 9,473 total registered voters— casting ballots in the June 14 primary in Humboldt County. Clark and Washoe County account for 75 percent of the ballots cast in the Nevada Republican primary for governor and Gilbert trailed behind Lombardo significantly in both counties, even after the recount.
Thus, Lombardo will face incumbent Steve Sisolak for the final race for Nevada Governor in the General Election in November.
Commissioner Tipton asked Clerk Spero about the results in other Nevada counties and she explained that the changes were insignificant.
“There was nothing that impacted the final tally and percentage [of votes] that would call for any type of investigation,” she said, as Gilbert had previously suggested was necessary in his call for a recount.