After looking at the price tag, Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, decided to go to court rather than demand a recount of her 422-vote loss to Secretary of State Dean Heller in the GOP primary for Nevada's second congressional district.
Elections Deputy Ellick Hsu said Nevada's 17 county elections officials estimated costs totaling $115,000 to do the recount and Sequoia, which manufactured and programmed the machines, said it would charge $175,000 - a total of $290,000.
He emphasized that the secretary of state's office had nothing to do with the development of those estimates. Carson City Clerk Alan Glover said the recount would have cost $12,000 in the capital city alone.
Angle, at a press conference in Reno on Friday, said she would instead challenge the election results in district court "based on errors in the voting process." Those errors, she said, were concentrated in Washoe County where some polling places didn't open on time.
She said Washoe Registrar of Voters Dan Burke reported several errors in the Aug. 15 primary which Angle charged "clouded the outcome of the election to the point that the true winner is unknown."
She said there could be enough disenfranchised voters to change the outcome of the election.
"In this situation, the voters do not know who would have received the majority of votes if errors did not occur," said Angle. "Out of respect for the will of the people and their right to vote, I am obligated to contest the outcome of this election and request a special election."
She has until Tuesday to file that challenge.
• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.