Mayoral Election Really Could Be a Coin Flip

A mayoral election in a small Ohio village could once again be decided by a coin toss. Candidates Travis Boyd and Grant Downes each received 127 votes in Tuesday's election in Magnolia, a village of just under 1,000 people about 70 miles south of Cleveland. A coin toss will determine the winner if Boyd and Downes remain tied after election results are certified in two weeks, the AP reports.

That's how outgoing Mayor Robert Leach got the job, winning a coin toss in 1979. Leach chose not to seek re-election after running unopposed for 9 consecutive terms. A 1923 Peace silver dollar is believed to have been used to break election ties in Stark County since the early 1940s. "I kind of planned for two outcomes, and this was not one of them," Downes said, per Fox 8, adding, "That’s just how this town decides mayors." (Ohio has a complicated history with presidential coin tosses.)