The race for Clark County Council chair remains unresolved even after the fourth count of ballots was released Friday evening.
The most recent total shows Republican Clark County Councilor Eileen Quiring pulling ahead of Democrat Eric Holt by 1,680 votes. She has 92,490 votes, compared with 90,810 votes received by Holt.
On Thursday, Holt said that he wasn’t giving up despite falling behind in the count and would reach out to voters who had unresolved signature issues with their ballots in hopes of catching up. When asked Friday for comment on the most recent results, Holt said in a text that he would issue a formal statement on Tuesday afternoon, after the next totals are released.
Despite expanding her lead, Quiring said that while she’s cautiously optimistic, she’s not ready to declare victory.
“I am happy with the results,” she said. “But it’s not over ’til it’s over.”
Quiring said that she’ll feel more confident once she’s 2,000 votes ahead of Holt. Should she be elected, it will trigger an appointment process for her current seat.
Clark County Elections Supervisor Cathie Garber said that currently the race does not meet that threshold for a recount. Under state law, a recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and is also less than one-half of 1 percent of the total number of votes between the two.
But that could change as the county continues to count an estimated 7,000 ballots. Garber said that those uncounted ballots include replacement ballots that people have downloaded and sent in, ones with unresolved signature issues and ballots where the intent of the voter is unclear. She said the county is also still processing ballots that are trickling in and are eligible to be counted because they’ve been postmarked by Nov. 6.
