Election 2004

Persistent tie vote may be decided by coin toss

By BILL COATS
Published November 6, 2004

LUTZ - Voters in the 800-home Cheval West development needed to elect two members to their governing board this week.

It's four days after Election Day, and the subdivision board still hasn't managed to fill either seat. Instead, a mix of drama, chuckles and incredulity is swirling around this bottom-of-the-ballot race.

It started Tuesday night, as rivals Mary Castro and Nathan Whitaker awaited returns at their homes in the affluent north Hillsborough County development. Both precincts reported in. Each candidate tallied 459.

"I couldn't help but laugh when we had 918 votes and were tied," said Whitaker, a 35-year-old lawyer.

He called Castro and congratulated her on the tie. Each eventually went to bed.

The next morning, the county Supervisor of Elections Web site showed two additional votes, both for Whitaker. That made the tally 461-459.

"It's so close, they could find a couple of ballots on the floor and change the outcome," Whitaker said. Castro, a 57-year-old sales associate, said she would not have asked for a recount.

"It's not that big of an office," she said.

But election laws require an automatic recount in any race decided by 0.25 percent or less of the vote, or 2.3 votes in the case of the Cheval election. So Friday afternoon, officials ran Cheval's absentee ballots through the county vote scanners again. They re-tallied the cartridge from each voting machine in Cheval.

The vote: 461 to 461.

Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson scheduled a manual recount for Wednesday. Absentee ballots that didn't register a vote in the race will be examined in case human eyes can see subtle marks the machines missed.

If a tie persists, Florida law says it may be broken by "lots," such as drawing straws or a coin toss.

But Friday night, Whitaker and Castro both were thinking about the other vacancy on the Cheval West board.

Back in July, two seats were scheduled for election. The neighborhood's activists expected Dan Gallagher, the board's treasurer, to file for re-election. Whitaker and Castro filed for the other seat, where no incumbent was running.

Then travel and a paperwork lapse intruded, and Gallagher didn't qualify after all. His seat was removed from the ballot for lack of a candidate. Whitaker and Castro both inquired about switching to that race, and learned they couldn't.

Both Castro and Whitaker say the loser on Wednesday should get the extra seat.

Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 6, 2004, 00:56:27]