County commissioners across the state are certifying the results of a recount requested by Republican governor candidate Joey Gilbert, although the re-do in Nevada’s two most populous counties netted him fewer than a handful of additional votes in a race that unofficial totals show he lost by about 26,000.

In Clark County, commissioners met for about 10 minutes on Thursday to unanimously canvass the results of a recount conducted last week. Registrar Joe Gloria reported that the updated results show Gilbert with seven fewer votes than in the first count of the June 14 primary, and the winner, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, with eight fewer votes.

Gloria said the reduced counts came from mail ballots. An adjudication board determined that certain voters who had marked more than one candidate on their ballot had not correctly canceled out one of their choices before opting for a different candidate.

In Washoe County, commissioners approved the recount of the votes for the Republican candidates for governor Thursday morning, with only Commissioner Jeanne Herman in opposition. Two additional votes were counted in Joey Gilbert’s favor, meaning Lombardo maintains his win in the race. 

The cost of the recount was estimated to be $84,751, which would have been the expense to staff the recount for the five days allowed. However, the votes in Washoe County were recounted in just two days, so the total cost came out to $9,082. The cost will be submitted to the secretary of state and the refund will be granted to Gilbert once it is approved. 

Two people offered public comment in Washoe County — one commending the registrar’s office for their ongoing work to secure an accurate election and one saying that the recount and the primary election had no integrity.

The sole public commenter in Clark County described an incident where a voter was given back a voting card because the voter had not finished casting a ballot. The commenter asserted that the election was a sham and should not be certified on account of the incident, which she said she reported.

Other county commissions convened on Thursday to certify the results, although the secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when final statewide results would be compiled.

Gilbert has said activist Robert Beadles paid for the recount, which was initially estimated to cost up to $191,000 statewide. In a blog post earlier this week, Beadles wrote that “we knew the recount would be a joke and only make us look bad as it’s the same corrupt machines, counting the same corrupt votes,” but said he pursued it to buy time needed to compile evidence for an election contest lawsuit.

Beadles asserts that Gilbert “won the governor’s race in a landslide” but says he hasn’t released evidence to support the claim “because we’re saving it for court.”