Arizona Election Tie-Breaker: Drawing Cards

Arizona Election Tie-Breaker: Drawing Cards

Not every disputed election ends with in revolutions in the streets. Take the case of Cave Creek, AZ (wonder how they picked that name), who recently had a tie-breaker in their election for the top CIty Council seat.

The Arizona state legislature mandates that any election ties are to be determined in a game of chance. Perhaps not feeling lucky enough to toss a coin, roll dice or draw straws, the incumbent Thomas McGuire and Adam Trenk decided to go a more traditional route,  (no they did not have a duel) and instead decided the election based on the highest card.

Imagine the made-for-tv movie with the accompanying sappy music and/or drumroll to set the scene.

The incumbent drew first. Again, we are talking cards, not guns here. It was a six of hearts.

The challenger, drawing upon his thirst for the position, drew second and came up with a winning king of hearts. (If this were actually the movies, I'm sure Trenk would have drawn the Queen of Hearts with the song of the same name blaring in the background.) Thus far, this has not been made into a movie, so I'm pretty sure there weren't any songs blaring in the background, just a Judge, possibly in robes.

Trenk, not surprisingly, seemed pleased with the results. "A king of hearts is pretty good."