Elections Decided by Coin Flip

Heads or tails.

Election officials settled a deadlocked race for a spot on a city council in suburban Salt Lake City by drawing names from a pilgrim hat and flipping a coin — a decision-by-chance that Utah and a number of other states allow to break ties in elections or appointments.

Utah law lets tied votes be settled "by lot" but does not specify what method of chance to use, Elections Director Mark Thomas said Wednesday. A coin toss and drawing names are common methods and they have been used two or three times over the past decade in Utah, generally in small elections, he said.

In the Kentucky city of Grayson, a tied election for a city council seat was settled Thursday with a coin flip.