Two politicians in Florida drew cards to decide who had won a mayoral election, because democracy

William Shearon won the mayoral race of Bradenton Beach in Florida by drawing an ace of spades from a card pack.

Incumbent mayor Jack Clark drew a 10 of clubs, and thus was forced out of office.

This actually happened.

The race for mayor was tied at 195 votes for each candidate. A recount confirmed the evenly split vote from Bradenton Beach's 700 residents.

Proving once again that Florida really is the weirdest state of the union, the Bradenton Herald reports under Florida law, "If the vote at the general election results in a tie, the outcome shall be determined by lot".

County supervisor of elections Mike Bennett thought through the options before settling on the 'easiest' method to decide the election:

We could’ve flipped a coin, we’ve could’ve drawn straws, I supposed we could’ve play that paper rock and hammer, whatever, scissors and hammer or roll a dice. We felt the easiest one to do with less confusion was to go ahead and cut a deck of cards.

Shearon, who was outed as mayor in May 2015, thanked divine providence for the intervention.

On his victory, he said:

The voters voted, and the man up above made the decision.

The Washington Post reports that although deciding tied elections is rare, it's not unheard of - 35 states allow coin toss or "other means of chance" to determine winners of tied draws.

HT [Bradenton Herald]3

More: One person in America is shot by a dog every year on average

More: Climate change? Not in Florida