Minor Nevada presidential candidates want recount

Two minor presidential candidates want a statewide recount of the Nevada election that President Bush won by a 21,500-vote margin.

Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb met a Monday deadline to submit the requests, Steve George, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state, said Wednesday.

"I believe that errors or fraud have been committed," Badnarik said in the one-page request.

George said state officials were surveying clerks and election officials in Nevada's 17 counties to determine how much a recount would cost. Washoe County Registrar Dan Burk estimated a statewide recount could cost $500,000.

Under state election law, Badnarik and Cobb would foot the bill, and would be required to submit a deposit before a recount starts.

If the recount changes the results of the election, they would get their money back.

Bush won Nevada with nearly 50.5 percent of the popular vote statewide. Democrat John Kerry drew 48 percent, according to results certified last week by the state Supreme Court.

A state judge on Tuesday threw out a legal challenge in Reno aimed at blocking Nevada's five electoral votes from being cast next month by Republican electors for Bush.

Badnarik got 3,176 votes statewide in the Nov. 2 election, or 0.38 percent. Cobb got 853 votes in Nevada, or 0.10 percent.

Cobb and Badnarik announced earlier this month they intend to seek a recount in Ohio, a key state in the election that Bush won nationally with a margin of 34 electoral votes, 286-252. They also want a recount in closely contested New Mexico.

Cobb spokesman Blair Bobier said the goal is to ensure that every vote is counted.

Badnarik said he requested the recount in Nevada after hearing reports of registration fraud and voting machines not providing verifiable paper receipts.

Older electronic voting machines without printed receipts were used in Clark County.