A Kentucky election for a local magistrate position was decided by a coin toss after both candidates, Democrat Kristen Fryman and Republican Benny Ray Renner, received an identical 91 votes. The extraordinary outcome occurred in Robertson County following Tuesday's midterm elections.
With no ballots separating the two contenders, election officials turned to a tiebreaking method permitted by Kentucky law: a game of chance. Renner, whose name appeared first on the ballot, was given the first call on the coin flip. When he called heads and the coin landed tails, Fryman was declared the winner of the 2nd District magistrate race.
"We laughed about it, and I left here as the winner and with the quarter in my pocket," Fryman told WEKU. She added that she was shocked by the tie, noting that she had been told such an event had never happened in their county before.
Fryman, who works for manufacturing giant 3M, will help Democrats retain their majority on the county's fiscal court, the local governing body responsible for budgets and tax rates.
This is not the first time a Kentucky election has been settled by unusual means. Earlier this year, a Republican primary in Union County also ended in a tie, requiring a silver dollar flip. Similar tiebreakers have been employed in other local contests across the state, including in Logan County and Madisonville.
Meanwhile, a mayoral race in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, has also resulted in an exact tie, with incumbent Robert Nelson and challenger Halyn Roth each receiving 1,401 votes. Officials there are preparing to decide the winner by drawing a name from a bag, though a recount could still alter the outcome. "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 commented on the procedure.