A Kentucky local election came down to the toss of a coin after two candidates finished with an identical number of votes.
Democrat Kristen Fryman defeated Republican Benny Ray Renner in Robertson County’s 2nd District magistrate race, despite both candidates receiving exactly 91 votes.
With the contest locked in a perfect tie, officials relied on an unusual tiebreaking method allowed under Kentucky law: chance.
Renner called heads, but the quarter landed on tails, making Fryman the winner and handing her both the elected seat and the coin used to decide it.
“We laughed about it, and I left here as the winner and with the quarter in my pocket,” Fryman told local public radio station WEKU.
The extraordinary outcome followed Tuesday’s midterm elections, in which residents of the rural northern Kentucky county voted for representatives on the fiscal court.
Once the ballots had been counted, however, neither candidate held an advantage.
Democrat Kristen Fryman won the Kentucky magistrate race after a coin toss broke a 91-vote tie, giving her the seat and the quarter used in the tiebreaker
Fryman and Renner each received 91 of the 182 votes cast in the race.
Fryman said she was stunned when she learned the final count had produced such a rare result.
“When it was tied, I was like, ‘Wow,’” she told WEKU. “I was kind of shocked because that’s just something I don’t think that… I was told that’s never happened in our county before.”
Kentucky election rules provide a solution for contests that end in a tie, allowing officials to select the winner by drawing lots.
In this case, the county clerk conducted the coin toss using a quarter borrowed from the sheriff.
Because Renner’s name appeared first on the ballot, he was given the first opportunity to choose a side.
“Our county clerk, she flipped it, and Benny, my opponent, he’s the one that got the call because he was listed first on the ballot, and he called heads, and it was tails,” Fryman said. The election was over.
Fryman is employed by manufacturing company 3M in nearby Cynthiana, north of Lexington.
Republican Benny Ray Renner lost the race after tying Fryman with 91 votes, when his call of heads did not match the coin’s tails result
Her victory also allowed Democrats to maintain control of Robertson County’s fiscal court, which oversees local budgets and tax rates.
Another tied election is attracting attention in Spring Lake Park, a Minneapolis suburb in Minnesota, where the mayoral race also ended with two candidates receiving the same vote total.
Incumbent Robert Nelson and challenger Halyn Roth each collected 1,401 votes, equivalent to 49.77 percent. If the official canvass confirms the tie, officials are expected to draw a name from a bag to determine the winner.
The drawing could be held after a public meeting later Monday, although a recount may still alter the result.
“I don’t love it. I’ve heard from a lot of people who think that this is kind of a silly rule, that we wish we could do a revote or something else,” Roth told CBS.
City Administrator Daniel Buchholtz defended the procedure, saying: “It’s a process that’s been outlined in state law for a long time and it’s a process that I believe is fair.”
Robert Nelson, left, and Halyn Roth, right, each received 49.77 percent of the vote in the tied Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, mayoral race. The winner could be selected after a public meeting later Monday
Robertson County has seen this kind of election tiebreaker before.
Earlier this year, a Republican primary in Union County also ended level, with officials using a silver dollar to select the winner.
Other Kentucky races have been resolved through similar methods, including a Democratic magistrate primary in Logan County and a city commission contest in Hanson.
A Madisonville city council race in 2010 was likewise decided by a coin toss.