The No. 5 top story of 2019 is a tied Washington City Council race and the efforts by the Beaufort County Board of Elections to certify that election.

Every so often, news stories from small towns throughout the United States tell of tied municipal elections being decided by coin flips, drawing straws or some other random method. It’s an interesting political rarity; proof that every single vote matters. That random chance is also what decided the Washington City Council race this past November.

On Election Night, as results poured into the Beaufort County Board of Elections office from Washington’s four voting precincts, four frontrunners began to emerge in the Council race. Donald Sadler, Virginia Finnerty, Richard Brooks and Betsy Kane each won their seats handily, by relatively large margins. Who would fill the fifth seat on the Council, however, remained questionable.

Separated by only two votes, incumbent councilmen William Pitt (619 votes) and Roland Wyman (621 votes) were practically neck and neck.

Reading the phoned-in results from municipalities throughout the county, BOE Secretary John Tate III reminded those present that the results were unofficial until canvassing concluded the following week. With absentee and provisional ballots still uncounted, and the possibility of a recount, the race was too close to call on election night.

Flash forward a week and a half later, and the Board of Elections gathered for its regular canvas meeting. After inspecting and certifying absentee and provisional votes, the results showed a dead tie between Pitt and Wyman, with 621 votes each.

What followed was a pair of recounts that lasted three hours, first with Board of Elections staff running every Washington ballot through voting machines. That machine recount still showed a tie between the two candidates, prompting a hand recount of 1,530 ballots. One by one, BOE members counted and tallied each ballot into four sets — votes for Wyman, for Pitt, for both and for neither.

At the end of that lengthy process, the tie persisted. Under North Carolina state law, a tied election is to be determined “by lot.” The exact method, however, is up to the candidates and the Board of Elections to determine. A few suggestions made in jest included a footrace, splitting a wishbone and a game of Washingtonopoly.

Ultimately, the candidates settled on drawing a name at random. After Board of Elections Director Kellie Hopkins printed the two names, five times each, on a sheet of paper, they were placed into a basket. BOE Chairman Tom Payne pulled the winner from the basket, making Pitt the fifth member of the Washington City Council.

“This has been nerve-wracking,” Pitt said after his name was drawn. “Thank you and thank God for what he has done. I think we need to tell everybody that one vote does matter.”

In a newspaper column a few days later, Wyman praised the efforts of the BOE to certify the election, calling the recounts, “… A fair, open and accurate election process; a process that protected the value of every vote that was cast.”

Hopkins said the tied election and selection of winner by lot was the first she has seen in her 21 years at the Beaufort County Board of Elections.

“Like Mr. Pitt said, I think voters need to take away from this that one vote does count and low turnout can affect these things drastically,” Hopkins said. “Recounts are great for the transparency of the process. Candidates and people that are involved in the recount become very familiar with the process. It backs up how our machines work and validates the process.”