Game of chance
So, as election offices do in the case of a tie, they ran a machine recount. Same result. They went to a manual recount – of all 44 ballots – and, alas, it was the same result. Now what?
We were both amused and surprised to find out that in Florida, when the race is tied, the statute says in part: “In case two or more persons receive an equal and highest number of votes for the same office, such persons shall draw lots to determine who shall be elected to the office.”
The amusing part is, after entering the race, campaigning, collecting contributions and working hard to tell voters why they should vote for you, it could all come down to a game of chance – as witnessed in the Laurel Hill race this year.
They had the option of drawing lots, rolling dice or cutting a deck of cards for the high card. All options led to a 50% chance of winning the race. It was all a game of chance, a luck of the draw so to speak.
In Laurel Hill’s case, they drew lots – or tags. The bag had two tags. One tag was labeled “elected” and the other tag was labeled “defeated.” We suppose that is better than pulling out a tag that said “loser.” Although, it could have said, “Sorry, better luck next time.”
We also discovered the Destin city council 2014 race was decided by a game of chance. In that election candidates Rodney Braden and Tom Weidenhamer were tied – and both mutually agreed to a game of high card. Paul Lux, the Okaloosa County supervisor of elections actually cut the cards for the game. Ultimately, Braden won.
The Florida Statute 100.181 was passed in 1941 – and we clearly see it is not a modern-day statute. We like that the most – there is no technology involved in the decision, just good ol’ luck. It takes us back…way back to when life was very simple and unplugged for the most part.
We love this way of deciding the fate of two tied candidates in an election. But we do have more suggestions for the games played just to spice it up a bit. We really like rock, papers, scissors – maybe the best two out of three. Or, how about calling heads or tails in a coin toss? Better yet, how about a Mark Twain inspired frog jumping contest?