KEN RITTER, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A recount of ballots from five Nevada counties turned up just 15 erroneous votes between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump and no change in the results of the Nov. 8 presidential election, the top state election official said Thursday.
Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske declared the recount finished.
Cegavske told independent presidential candidate Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente by letter that the review of 93,840 ballots cast in eight precincts in four rural counties and 84 precincts in and around Las Vegas didn't turn up significant errors.
The recount took nine votes away from Clinton, six away from Trump and none away from De La Fuente — far below the 1 percent error rate to trigger a statewide recount.
Clinton defeated Trump statewide by about 27,000 votes, out of 1.1 million votes cast. De La Fuente finished last, with a fraction of 1 percent of the vote. The choice, "None of These Candidates," by comparison drew about 2.5 percent.
All the discrepancies that were found were on absentee ballots, including one in rural Nye County that was originally rejected as defective, Cegavske said. It was added in the recount to Clinton's column.
De La Rocque told The Associated Press on Thursday that he sought the Nevada recount "because I want to make sure your vote counts as much as mine does."
He had said earlier he sought the ballot review to provide what he called a counterbalance to recounts sought by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
De La Fuente got at least some good news: Cegavske informed him the recount cost about $6,500.
That was less than half the $14,000 deposit that she collected to initiate the process. De La Fuente will be refunded a little more than $7,600, she said.
