electionline Weekly

In Focus This Week

Clarification: An early version of last week’s story “Questions persist about California vote system review” stated that Diebold did not submit their source code to the Secretary of State’s office until June 15. Diebold submitted their source code on June 8.

Poker, Not Politics, Sometimes Determines Office Holders
Odd-ball answers to tie votes resolve races but raise questions

By Juliette Jeanfreau
electionline.org

While bingo balls and a deck of cards may be essentials for a wild night in Las Vegas, these Sin City necessities have also served a less expected but rather useful purpose within both state and local elections. 

Despite relentless campaigning and fierce political loyalties, on occasion, the votes come out even. And what better way is there to settle an election tie than by playing a clean game of poker?

Although games of poker and aces high may seem unrefined and slightly tawdry, the alternatives to settling elections through recounts and runoffs often eat up time and amplify costs, and judges are generally reluctant to redo elections. “People think, well, isn’t there a more sophisticated way to do it?” said David Orr, clerk of Cook County, Ill. where on occasion, elections have come down to the flip of a coin.

When the 2003 race for a seat on the Glen Cove City Council in New York ended in a tie, the Nassau County Board of Elections had no process in place for settling a tied election, so the battle turned to the courtroom. Steven Schlesinger, an attorney for incumbent Joseph Gioino, expressed his frustration over the election, which had been prolonged by a slew of lawsuits and recounts.

“Everyone cooked up every cockamamie reason why things should be counted or not counted. Who was winning changed day to day. It was up by two, down by four, up by six, down by three. What happens [now]? No one has a clue,” Schlesinger told The New York Times.

When an appellate court ruled that the election really and truly was a tie, the decision was left either for the Glen Cove City mayor to appoint someone or for then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to call for a special election. Finally, a year after the initial vote took place Gioino defeated his Republican rival Grady Farnan by 265 votes in a special election.

For better or for worse, other states have decided upon various methods of settling tied elections, even if these methods (such as poker and aces high) seem completely arbitrary and unrelated to the elections themselves.

According to codes in 39 states, determining the outcome of an election by lots is perfectly legitimate; so in fact, these “arbitrary” methods are not as unusual as they may seem.

A coin toss is usually the method of choice. “Most people feel that the coin toss is the simple and fair way. But you could really do any game of chance that the candidates agree with,” said Orr.

Other ways of settling elections have included drawing straws, picking names out of a hat, drawing cards, and when candidates are feeling especially creative, playing a game of rock-paper-scissors.

In Florida, two candidates for a local governing board in Hillsborough County in 2004 agreed on a card game after a tie vote. According to St. Petersburg Times, elections official Christina Voehl provided the deck, camouflage-colored Iraq’s Most Wanted Cards, because “that’s what she had in the house.”

And for the candidates’ reactions? Only Wade Carlson, self-proclaimed “old codger,” lightheartedly declared himself “willing to duke it out” in the 2006 mayoral election in Dacono, Utah, reported the Deseret News. But on the whole, candidates have been able to maintain their social graces in light of slightly outlandish circumstances.

Despite the candidates’ cool responses, some voters are left feeling incredulous, confused, or downright angry.

Students at the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work at the University of Connecticut became intrigued by a Democratic primary election that was resolved by a coin flip last fall. According to a press release, students presented an exhibit on campus that included visual displays with pointed questions such as, “Do you think decisions about stem cell research should be determined by the flip of a coin?”

In the primary, candidates Elissa Wright and Rita Schmidt were tied with 457 votes each, while a third candidate, Michael Kindle, had collected 408 votes. Instead of holding a runoff, the Registrar of Voters settled the election with a coin toss.

On July 6, Connecticut passed Public Act 07-194, “An Act Concerning the Integrity and Security of the Voting Process,” in response to the election, thus banning the settlement of any state, district, or municipal election by lot.

“No candidate should have to worry that a tie would mean a coin-flip, and more importantly no voter should fear being disenfranchised,” wrote Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz (D). “All elections, no matter what the outcome, should be in the hands of the voters.”

Juliette Jeanfreau is interning this summer at Electionline.org. She is a rising sophomore at the University of Richmond and is currently undecided about her major.