A Kentucky election was decided by a coin toss after Democrat Kristen Fryman and Republican Benny Ray Renner each received 91 votes in Robertson County.
The dead heat in the race for the county’s 2nd District magistrate seat was settled under Kentucky law, which permits tied elections to be decided by drawing lots.
Renner called heads, but the coin landed tails, handing the position to Fryman. She also kept the quarter used to decide the contest.
“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 result followed Tuesday’s midterm elections, in which voters in the rural northern Kentucky county chose representatives for the fiscal court, the local governing body responsible for budgets and tax rates.
There were 182 votes cast in the contest, with the two candidates splitting them evenly.
Fryman said she was shocked when she learned the final count. “When it was tied, I was like, ‘Wow’,” she told WEKU. “I was kind of shocked cause that’s just something I don’t think that…I was told that’s never happened in our county before.”
The county clerk conducted the toss using a coin borrowed from the sheriff. Renner was allowed to make the call because his name appeared first on the ballot.
“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.
Fryman, who works for manufacturing company 3M in nearby Cynthiana, north of Lexington, will take the seat. Her victory also means Democrats retain their majority on Robertson County’s fiscal court.
The result follows other Kentucky contests that have required unusual tie-breakers. Earlier this year, a Republican primary in Union County was decided by flipping a silver dollar, while similar procedures have been used in Logan County, Hanson and Madisonville.
