Tie in Five: Precinct to Decide Final Belmont Town Meeting Seat

They counted the votes at Belmont's Town Clerk's Office and the final tally from the Belmont Town Election this past Tuesday is official.

And while one of the interesting results from the April 2 election was the tie between top vote getters, Elyse Shuster and Laurie Slap, in the Belmont School Committee race, it turns out that it was not the only race where an equal number of voters cast their ballots for two candidates. 

But what was interesting in the tie between Fifth Precinct Town Meeting candidates Andrea Serra-Masciari and Matthew Sullivan was it was for the 12th and final seat on the town's legislative body.

While not unusual, a tie in elected contests are resolved differently from state-to-state and from community-to-community.

A coin toss is the preferred method for tie breaking elections in Wyoming while any game of chance can decide a tied up election in Texas including five-card poker or rolling dice as what determined a town council race in Webster, Texas in 2012. In Sampson County, Kentucky, a candidate was selected to the Autryville Town Council after a Board of Elections member picked her name from a hat. 

And in 2002, after Town-Council candidates Stu Fraser and Jenny Russell in Telluride, Colorado each received 410 votes, Town Clerk M.J. Schillaci had each candidate pick cards with Fraser selecting the ace of spades.

But there's no chance that the final seat in the Fifth Precinct will be resolved with cards, dice, hats or even the spin of the roulette wheel (which is allowed in Texas), according to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.

Under state law, a tie vote is deemed to create a vacancy which can be interpreted as "a failure to elect."

A special caucus of Precinct 5 Town Meeting members has been called and if a quorum of 18 members attend, it can elect a person to fill the seat for one year and attend Town Meeting beginning April 29.

The special caucus will take place in Room 2 of Belmont Town Hall on Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m. 

That seat will then be open at the next annual Town Election in April 2014.

Cushman said the only requirement to be elected to the 12th seat is being a registered voter of Precinct 5; the caucus does not need to elect or even consider either Sullivan or Serra-Masciari.