It seldom happens, but sometimes an election race is decided by a coin toss.

That was the case last week when two candidates for mayor in the Lewis County town of Winlock were tied for second place in last month’s Primary Election after a recount.  The two candidates, incumbent Mayor Cy Meyers and challenger Don Bradshaw had 49 votes apiece. (Glen Cook finished first in the primary with 185 votes.)

After a manual recount was held on Sept. 9, there were no changes with the vote totals for either Meyers or Bradshaw, so a coin toss was conducted that day to determine the second-place candidate who would move on to November’s General Election. Since neither Meyers or Bradshaw attended the coin toss, Lewis County Auditor Gary Zandell put each of their names in a hat and called tails for the name drawn, which turn out to be Meyers’ name. Zandell tossed the coin and it came up heads.  Bradshaw advances.   

Check out the story in last Thursday’s edition of The (Centralia) Chronicle about the coin toss.

The Winlock mayor’s race was one of seven recounts conducted in last month’s Primary Election. Check out the Elections Division report on these recounts.

According to State Elections Director Nick Handy, Washington typically has between five and 15 recounts after a Primary or General Election.