After duplicates tossed, Miller’s lead over Anthony now 15
Fifteen votes separated Democrat Ross Miller and Republican Stavros Anthony — not 10 nor 30 — after a weekend review of the completed recount in the tightly contested race for Clark County Commission.
Miller’s 10-vote victory over Anthony in the initial tally of general election votes increased to 30 after a five-day recount wrapped up last week. However, the county also revealed Friday that it was investigating how there were 74 more votes tallied in the recount than in the initial count.
On Monday, county Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria told lawyers for both campaigns in an email that the issue had been determined to be duplicate batches of ballots that were read into the system, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Review-Journal.
After those batches were removed, Miller led Anthony by 15 votes — a total which Gloria said he would be presenting on Tuesday to the county commission.
Between the recount, with duplicates removed, and the original count in November, there were seven more votes tallied. They went to Miller by a 6-1 split.
Anthony’s campaign manager Lisa Mayo-DeRiso said Monday that the shifting lead, accompanied by 139 voting discrepancies that prompted Anthony to pay nearly $80,000 for a recount, were indicative of the need for a special election.
“Our campaign is of the position that this is an ever-changing number,” she said. “I don’t think that a reasonable person can say that you can declare who the winner is in this race.”
Miller’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, but Miller on Friday had thanked election staff and volunteers who worked 18-hour days during a pandemic “to uphold my victory.”
Meanwhile, Anthony, a term-limited Las Vegas councilman, has expressed frustration since last month about the commission’s decision to ultimately not seek an election redo. On Friday, he tweeted that the District C election was a “disaster” and suggested that the all-Democrat commission had bowed to political pressure.
Mayo-DeRiso said Monday that the campaign is prepared to take its case all the way up to the Nevada Supreme Court if necessary.
Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.