Premier Stephen McNeil has retained his slim majority government after judicial recounts on Friday confirmed Liberal wins in two close races in Nova Scotia.

The day-long re-examination of every single vote in Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank and Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie — a combined 14,388 valid votes — made only miniscule changes to the official results posted on election night.

Bill Horne, the winner in the Waverley race, won his seat by 65 votes instead of the 66 votes posted on May 30. He finished with a total of 3,160 votes.

The margin for Lloyd Hines in Guysborough remained unchanged at 71 votes. He had a total of 2,565 votes.

1 vote lost, 1 vote gained

The only other candidates to have their tallies changed were Green Party candidate Anthony Edmonds and NDP candidate Marney Simmons.

Edmonds, who finished fourth in Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank, lost one vote and ended at 506 votes. Simmons, who finished third in Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie, gained a vote to increase her tally to 894 votes.

Every ballot cast in last month's provincial election for the two electoral districts was recounted Friday in two Halifax courtrooms, supervised by Elections Nova Scotia staff and overseen by a judge.

The recount for the riding of Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank got underway Friday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. (Jean Laroche/CBC)

The recounts were ordered in Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank and Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie after the losing Progressive Conservative candidates in each riding — Dan McNaughton and Rob Wolf, respectively — requested a review.

Horne called the process worthwhile, despite earlier misgivings about its usefulness.

"It didn't seem to at first, but yeah it probably is useful," Horne told reporters outside the coutroom where he had spent most of the day watching the recount.

"Now we absolutely know how the verdict was and left nothing to the imagination, I guess."

Scrutineers

Horne appeared relaxed sitting in the public gallery of the courtroom watching the recount take place.

Scrutineers chosen by the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives were seated at seven tables and painstakingly examined each ballot withdrawn from sealed envelopes taken from boxes containing the results from every polling station.

There were 44 polls in Guysborough and 38 in Waverley.

3rd recount on Monday

According to Elections Nova Scotia, a recount costs roughly $15,000. Costs can be charged to the party requesting the recount, but in this case neither judge ordered those costs passed along.

A third recount is scheduled for Monday to determine the winner in Chester-St Margaret's. Liberal Hugh MacKay defeated the incumbent, New Democrat Denise Peterson-Rafuse, by 90 votes.

The Liberals currently have 27 seats in the legislature, followed by the Tories at 17 seats and the NDP at seven.