# Election in Montana tied exactly! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604 "2006-11-16T00:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/1 "2006-11-16T00:24:52Z")
From [this political site](http://www.politicalwire.com/): The Montana legislative race between Eaton (D,Inc.) and Kerns (D) is tied, 1,971 to 1,971. As it turns out, the governor, Democrat Brian Schweitzer, will appoint one of them (presumably Kerns), but still, isn’t that cool! A fairly small race, under 5,000 votes, but tied _exactly_! How often does this happen? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/2 "2006-11-16T00:28:21Z")
And you know there are dozens of voters on both sides who said, “What the hell, my one vote couldn’t matter!” Hah! Tris ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/3 "2006-11-16T00:31:21Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] And you know there are dozens of voters on both sides who said, “What the hell, my one vote couldn’t matter!” Hah! Tris [/QUOTE] How competitive was the race, really? Note that they’re both Democrats. I can certainly tell you there wasn’t any substantial media coverage of either of them, including a complete lack of attack ads. This is in contrast to the race between Burns and Tester, which had attack ads on every station. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/4 "2006-11-16T00:48:49Z")
Crap, I didn’t correct it. Kerns is a Republican. Originally I had Kerns as D and Eaton as R; I changed Eaton back to Democrat but missed Kerns. This isn’t a one-party race. And now you know that Derleth didn’t read the article carefully enough. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/5 "2006-11-16T01:30:32Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] And you know there are dozens of voters on both sides who said, “What the hell, my one vote couldn’t matter!” Hah! Tris [/QUOTE] Clearly, one of those voters was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![kurilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@kurilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurilla)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/6 "2006-11-16T03:21:09Z")
In certain parts of Nevada, you just [draw a card](http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/11/04/84437.php). ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/7 "2006-11-16T03:39:41Z")
Cool! We had a county commission\* race here a few years ago that was decided by one vote. The loser, of course, called for a recount, and it turned out… He actually lost by three votes. Still, it was pretty cool. \*Or maybe it was city council or something. Something local that wasn’t in my district. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/8 "2006-11-16T16:15:16Z")
You know, even if there was an election featuring two memebers of the same party running for the same office, the very fact that there are two of them shows that some difference more important than party alignment exists. So, your vote might matter more than usual in such a case. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-in-montana-tied-exactly/380604/9 "2006-11-16T16:19:51Z")
We had a tie in a small local race this year after three recounts. It was settled with a coin toss.