UPDATE: Harvey Wins Second Seat on Waukee City Council

A navy United States Air Force hat held the answer to a Waukee City Council election on Tuesday morning.

That answer was incumbent , who beat challenger with a little luck.

The two council candidates tied during the Nov. 8 city election, each receiving 502 votes.

Gene Krumm, Dallas County elections commissioner, said the Waukee election received five absentee ballots, but all had to be tossed because they were defective, either defective because they were either not signed or not sealed when mailed.

Iowa code says a board of supervisors may decide ties by putting candidates' names on pieces of paper and drawing a winner. Krumm contacted both candidates Tuesday, who agreed to proceed with the drawing of a name from a hat. 

Supervisor Brad Golightly had the honor of drawing the winning name. 

Months of campaigning came down to less than a minute when Harvey's name was announced as the victor.

Both candidates have until Friday to contest the election results, Krumm said.

"Both told me verbally they would be fine with the outcome from the supervisors meeting," he said.

Neither candidate was present for the drawing. 

Harvey has served four years on the Waukee City Council. He said he had no idea running for a second term would result in an ending like this.

"This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime type of event to have a vote end in a tie," said Harvey. "It was surreal that it happened this way and even more that it was done in a hat."

Harvey said he was unfamiliar with how an election would be decided in the instance of a tie.

"The election was so tight," he said. "Waukee had such a good group to chose from. I'll continue to keep looking at the bills and expenses and contracts to make sure we do the best thing for Waukee."

Harvey said he would possibly look into changing how a tie election is dealt with in Waukee.

"Maybe change the rules of the election to have a runoff instead of the hat," he said. "But I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing to make sure our money is spent wisely."

What do you think of the election results?