Mississippi election decided by drawing straws

Sometimes US politics is about ideas, powered by Jeffersons and Adamses and Reagans.

Sometimes it is about strategy, with races determined by the chess-match machinations of Axelrods and Roves.

But every once in a while, the fate of governments is determined by a considerably less eminent character: Lady Luck.

In Mississippi on Friday, luck smiled on a Democratic state representative, Blaine Eaton II, who had been forced, by state law, to draw straws for his seat after his race for re-election ended in a tie.

On Friday afternoon, in a short, strange ceremony presided over by governor Phil Bryant and secretary of state Delbert Hosemann, Eaton and his Republican challenger, Mark Tullos, each removed a box from a bag.

Eaton opened his box to reveal a long green straw.

And with that, a mathematically improbable tie for the house district 79 seat - each candidate had received exactly 4,589 votes - had been broken, but not by the voters.

Farmer’s luck

Eaton, who raises cattle and grows timber and soybeans, attributed his win to farmer’s luck.

“There’s always happiness in a good crop year,” he said.

An attorney for Tullos said that a challenge had been filed with the state House of Representatives.

Tullos, a lawyer, declined to comment, but had said previously that he planned a challenge if he lost the draw.

He had cited concerns about the way a county election board handled nine paper “affidavit ballots” filed by voters who believed their names were erroneously left off the voter rolls.

Resorting to a game of chance to break an electoral tie is common in many states, and coin tosses are often used to settle smaller local races. However, in few instances had the pot been as rich as this.

If Tullos had won, his fellow Republicans would have gained a three-fifths super-majority in the state House, the threshold required to pass revenue-related bills.

Eaton had not threatened a challenge if he lost, but, like his opponent, he was not happy with the way the race was decided.

“It’s wrong - philosophically, morally,” Eaton said before Friday’s drawing.

“It’s archaic, it’s medieval, and it’s wrong. We need a new election.”

New York Times service