CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — The 10 of clubs wasn’t quite good enough.
That’s what Carl Moore Sr. drew Thursday in the tiebreaker between two rural Nevada county commission candidates who sought the Republican nomination in the June 8 primary.
Nye County Commissioner Andrew “Butch” Borasky, who survived a recall last year and is seeking a second term, drew a queen of clubs to advance to the November general election.
The drawing took place in a courtroom in Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas.
Both tied with 381 votes in the primary. They remained tied after two recounts. State law calls for candidates to draw lots to get a winner when an election is deadlocked. It can be cutting cards, throwing dice, drawing straws or flipping a coin.
Before the big moment, Borasky and Moore agreed on procedure, down to the color of the deck that Clerk Sandra Merlino used — red. Merlino then shuffled the cards seven times and fanned their fate out on a table.
“We decided on high card,” Borasky told The Associated Press in a telephone interview afterward. “There was no disagreement between us. We shook hands before and after.”
Moore, co-owner of a family-owned hardware store, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Borasky will face Libertarian candidate Sandra Darby in November.
It’s not the first time a Nevada election has been determined by chance.
In the past decade, county commission races in White Pine and Esmeralda counties were each decided by a cut of the deck.
Two card draws were needed to decide the winner of a seat on a rural television district board last year.
After a tie in 2008, one candidate lost an initial draw before Washoe County election officials discovered some votes weren’t counted. They tied again in ballots, and the eventual winner was declared after he drew an ace of clubs to beat a 10 of spades in January 2209.
