Ping-pong settles poll dispute in US
Scraps of paper, a coin and a sack of numbered ping-pong balls settled a deadlocked local election in Florida on Saturday morning.
For the first time in Duval County history, an election tie was broken by a game of chance, after the two candidates running for Neptune Beach city council seat four were tied at 1,448 votes apiece.
On Saturday morning, Arthur, who won the polls, and his challenger, Rory Diamond, met at the supervisor of elections office in Jacksonville, Florida, to settle the tie once and for all.
The rules governing the three-round game stipulated that the outcome would determine the winner of the election.
In the first round, the candidates' names were written on “equally sized pieces of paper” and placed in a container. The supervisor drew a name: Diamond. He therefore got to call a coin toss in round two. The supervisor flipped the two-sided coin and Diamond called heads. He won again, and therefore earned the right to decide if he drew first or second in round three. Diamond elected to draw second from a sack of ping-pong balls numbered one to 20, the drawer of the highest number being the winner of the election. Arthur selected a ball numbered 12. Now it was Diamond's turn to draw. He drew No4, and lost.
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