Prompt Cast
Close Elections and Unconventional Tiebreakers: A Look at Historical Election Results
TLDR Close elections have occurred throughout history, with some being decided by a single vote or resulting in ties. Unconventional tiebreakers, such as drawing cards or randomly selecting ping-pong balls, have been used to determine the winners in these cases.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Democracies have elections, and sometimes those elections are extremely close, with vote differences that can be counted on one hand.
01:39
Close elections can and do happen, even with small odds, and there have been extremely close US presidential elections in the past.
02:59
The closest US presidential election in history was the 1910 election for New York's 36th congressional district, which was decided by a single vote.
04:34
In a Massachusetts election, the winner was determined by a provision in the state constitution requiring a candidate to receive a majority of the vote, resulting in the nickname "Landslide Morton" for the winner.
06:08
In a Wyoming State House of Representatives race, a tie between two candidates was resolved by randomly selecting a ping-pong ball from a hat, resulting in the winner becoming the Speaker of the House.
07:39
In a tie for a county commissioner seat in Esmeralda County, Nevada, the winner was determined by drawing a card from a deck, with the candidate drawing a spade winning the election.
09:16
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordered a manual lottery to determine the winner of the tie in the county commissioner seat election in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
